Stuart Hall’s essay “The Spectacle of the Other” explains the idea of how people create specific stereotypes through visual representation. Minorities are usually classified as the ‘other’, who are different from the dominant norm in the society.  Edward Said’s concept of Orientalism explains how the “Occident’ (western society) creates stereotypes of the “Orient” (Eastern cultures) to justify their dominance and colonialism. With this idea, the opera Madama Butterfly displays orientalism by having the American naval officer see Cio-Cio San as exotic and merely a tool for his pleasure. The butterfly appears with her family in a traditional Japanese wedding ceremony in the first scene. Pinkerton’s seems casual about the whole thing. This emphasizes how the western views the eastern cultures as mysterious yet is quick to dismiss and embraces the stereotypes that eastern women are submissive. Pinkerton sees the whole marriage as a convenience and believes he can leave it whenever he wants, exploiting Butterfly’s vulnerability, where she completely devotes herself to him. 

I have never seen an opera before, so it was something very different than what I expected. The setting of the Opera reminded me of a Broadway stage.  I loved the visual aspects, specifically the Bunraku style of puppetry for the child. The choice of having the child be a puppet shows that a child still needs help and reinforcement when they grow up. But what I didn’t like about the opera is that it was all sung in the same manner and in a different language. I think that made it seem a bit boring in my eyes and caused a lack of connection with the opera.