Analysis of the love duet from Puccini's Madama Butterfly

[colline1750]

Hi!

I would like to share with you a recent analysis of the climax from the love duet of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly.
It is an interesting passage in that, relative to the rest of the opera, there is no explicit orientalist material to depict Cio-Cio-San. Rather, the music is in a prototypically Western/European style. I believe this is not an innocent decision, and Puccini is purposefully “deleting” Cio-Cio-San’s agency as she succumbs to Pinkerton’s desire.

Do you remember other operas with marked orientalist tendencies (Aida, Salome, Prince Igor, etc.) where these musical features completely disappear in important plot points?