Who is Kate Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly?

In Giacomo Puccini’s opera Madama Butterfly, Kate Pinkerton is the American woman whom B.F. Pinkerton marries after leaving his Japanese wife, Cio-Cio-San (Butterfly).12

Her role in the story is primarily centered in Act III, where she accompanies Pinkerton and the American consul, Sharpless, to Butterfly’s home. Kate’s presence serves as the catalyst for the opera's tragic conclusion: she arrives with the intention of taking custody of Butterfly’s young son to raise him in the United States. Although she approaches the situation with a degree of timidity and promises to care for the child, her arrival forces Butterfly to confront the reality that her marriage is over and that she is expected to surrender her son. Ultimately, the realization that Kate is Pinkerton's new wife and the subsequent demand for the child lead Butterfly to take her own life to preserve her honor.2