Several years later Liling re-establishes a relationship with Gallimard, who is now divorced from his wife.Īfter living with Liling for over fifteen years, Gallimard is arrested and tried for espionage. Subsequently, he abandons her and returns to his wife in France. Gallimard first encounters Song on stage as she performs the title role in the opera and develops a relationship with her. Hwang interweaves details from the Bouriscot story with plotlines from Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly (1904). Butterfly was inspired by an article Hwang read about the real-life 1986 scandal involving a French diplomat, Bernard Bouriscot, who for twenty years maintained a relationship with an international spy and Chinese opera singer.Įchoing Puccini's Madame Butterfly, this highly theatrical drama presents Rene who is easy prey for the exotic charm of Chinese opera singer Song Liling. Butterfly opens in the cramped prison cell where French diplomat Rene Gallimard is being held captive by the French government-and by his own illusions
David Henry Hwang’s beautiful, heartrending play was winner of a 1988 Tony Award for Best Play and nominated for the 1989 Pulitzer Prize.īased on a true story that stunned the world, M.
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