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Who is Prince Yamadori in Madama Butterfly?
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Madama Butterfly
Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, 1908.
In Giacomo Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly, Prince Yamadori is a wealthy suitor who seeks to marry the protagonist, Cio-Cio-San (Butterfly). He is portrayed as a tenor and serves as a representative of the traditional Japanese society that attempts to reclaim Butterfly after she has been abandoned by her American husband, B.F. Pinkerton.1