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What happened to Cio-Cio-Sanâs father before the events of Madama Butterfly?
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Madama Butterfly
Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, 1908.
In the opera Madama Butterfly, Cio-Cio-Sanâs father committed ritual suicide after receiving an invitation to do so from the emperor.1
When Cio-Cio-San shows her possessions to Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton, she includes a mysterious narrow box that she initially refuses to open. Goro, the marriage broker, later reveals to Pinkerton that the box contains a knife used by her father to carry out this act.1