Opera in Focus - "MADAMA BUTTERFLY"

"MADAMA BUTTERFLY"
Act II, "Un Bel Di"

As act two of the opera begins, Madama Butterfly listens as her maid Suzuki prays at the household shrine for an end to butterfly's sadness. They have been abandoned by Butterfly's husband, Leiutenant Pinkerton, who returned to America three years ago. Suzuki tells Butterfly they have very little money left, what are they to do? But Butterfly is firm in her belief that Pinkerton will return, and so begins one of operatic literature's most famous aries, "Un bel dei" (One fine day), as she envisions her joy as Pinkerton's ship sails once more into the harbor and she watches as he climbs the hill to return to their little home.