Based
on Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly, these illustrations capture a
tragic love tale between a guileless Japanese young girl and an
American sailor. Cio Cio San (pronounced closely as Butterfly in
Japanese) is arranged to be married to a Naval officer, Pinkerton,
who only marries her for convenience. Briefly after the wedding,
Pinkerton ruthlessly leaves Japan, without reckoning Butterfly's
sincere and unconditional love. Years pass as Butterfly still waits
for him in hope and faithfulness, just to know Pinkerton has long
forgotten her. After an unfortunate encounter with his new wife,
Butterfly decides to take her own life. Pinkerton rushes in filled
with regrets,
but he is too late.
“Floating
in the joyful breath of spring”
Acrylic and colour pencils, 12" x 12"
This
painting depicts the fifteen year old Cio Cio San, ecstatic for her
arranged wedding with an American soldier. Butterfly, lights up the
temple as she arrives with her alluring smile and an slender
fragility. Her faithfulness to Pinkerton is also hinted in the
Christian cross she is holding, an act of renouncing her ancestral
Buddhist religion that symbolizes her unconditional love for
Pinkerton.
“I
cannot tell you whether it's love or fancy.
All
that I know is,
she, with her innocent charm has entranc'd
me.
Almost transparently fragile and slender,
Dainty in
stature, quaint little figure,
Seems to have stepped down
straight
from a screen.
But from her background of varnish and
lacquer,
Suddenly light as a feather she flutters,
And like a
butterfly, hovers and settles,
With so much charm, such seductive
graces,
That to rush after her a wild wish seized me
Tho' in
the quest her frail wings should be broken.”
“Lingering
on this infatuated tenderness”
Acrylic and colour pencils, 12" x 12"
On
the wedding night, Butterfly guilelessly asked Pinkerton whether it's true
that “If a butterfly is caught by a foreign man, he'll pierce its
heart with a needle and then leave it to perish?” To her anguish,
Pinkerton folds his arms around her, gently spoke: “May I tell you
why? So that you may not escape. I have caught you. I hold you as you
flutter...” This illustrations henceforth captures the tenderness
and romance pervading them that night, on backdrop of the falling
night in Nagasaki.
“Ah!
Night of rapture!
Ah,
lovely night!
Thy perfect calm is breathing love
near and far!”
“She
waits for the robins nesting"
Acrylic and colour pencils, 12" x 12"
This
last one is inspired from a commendable line from the second act,
a deceptive promise made by Pinkerton before he departs, having no intention to return: “I'll return with roses, when the
red-breasted robins are busy nesting”. Innocent
and devoted as a crane, Butterfly waits and waits in utmost patience,
everyday gazing at the memories, longing for a husband who has
shamelessly forgotten her.
PS. I never thought I was into opera until my first time watching it live, performed by a Belarus theatrical group, which turns out to be a mind-blowing experience :)
