Why did the opening-night audience react badly to Madama Butterfly in Milan?

The opening-night performance of Madama Butterfly at La Scala in Milan in 1904 was met with hostility from the audience, who openly jeered, hissed, and booed throughout the production.1

Several factors contributed to this negative reception:
* Mockery of the Theme: The audience ridiculed the opera’s Japanese subject matter.1
* Unfavorable Comparisons: Critics and attendees derided the tragic heroine, Cio-Cio-San, as a mere "secondhand copy" of Mimì, the lead character from Puccini’s earlier success, La Bohème.1
* Sabotage: Puccini suspected that jealous rivals had intentionally packed the theater with noisy supporters to ensure the opera’s failure.1

Following this disastrous premiere, Puccini withdrew the work to perform extensive revisions, including splitting the excessively long second act. The revised version, which premiered in Brescia, Italy, later that year, was a resounding success.1