Puccini’s Butterfly by Sue Howard

Reviewed by Wendy Lipke

As the title of the book suggests, this story is about Giacomo Puccini, the Italian composer known primarily for his operas. Broadly based on actual people and events, it imagines the composer’s life around the time of his creating the opera Madama Butterfly early in the 20th Century.

However, the first character presented to the reader is Elvira Gemignani the woman who left her husband and young son for the then penniless composer. Next the reader meets a young woman by the name of Corinna who, while travelling on a train, enters into conversation with a man who is reading what was David Belasco’s play Madame Butterfly.  This encounter leads to her becoming Puccini’s muse, ‘his compass rose, guiding him through the seas of his own creativity’ (140). These two women dominate the story and play an important role in Puccini’s life.

The story gives an interesting insight into life in the 1900s in Tuscany. In many ways Puccini’s story takes second place to the detailed descriptions the author provides with her writing about people and the environment.  The reader is treated to a whole page describing the antics of a seagull trying to get something to eat (122). The description of the oystercatcher has a closer link to Puccini as the birdsong inspires a melody for the Madam Butterfly Opera he is writing.

The author also has one of her characters linking animals to other people she has met based on their mannerisms and temperament. ‘The woman was a crab, a hard shelled, vicious old crustacean, with claws that nipped and pinched’ (26). Others are described as a poodle, a hippopotamus, an elephant and a canary and when speaking of the maestro himself, ‘he has the finely tuned ears of an owl (59). I do not believe these diversions from the main storyline are a detriment to the central theme, rather they add an appreciation of nature and how it is so closely linked to the human experience as well as bringing light-hearted humour to the storyline.

This story is full of contrasts and emotion. The author highlights the differences between those who have wealth and those who don’t, between people and their environment – the well-dressed sisters in a landscape of stunted trees and parched grass and between the changing seasons and the younger and older women.

The author shares with the reader the beliefs and attitudes prevalent at the beginning of the new century.  Alvira carries a burden of being unmarried yet providing Puccini with a son. Puccini himself, feels the frustration through his infatuation for someone young enough to be his own daughter and the obligations society has placed on him. Through her descriptions, Sue Howard compares the everyday lives of society’s elite with struggling country families and the emotions generated when they come together. It was interesting to see how, even for someone regarded as intellectually challenged when experiencing how others live, it generated dissatisfaction with what once was normal.

However, one negative for me was the density of the text on the page. The story is told through long paragraphs with little space between each of them. It was easy to lose one’s place and hard to find a way back. Maybe this was the result of formatting the thirty-nine chapter, 265 pages into a 5”x 8” book size. (The imperial measurement was simpler and fitted more closely to the actual size of the book than metric would have done).

The publication of this book was deliberately timed.  Sue Howard completed and edited this novel before her death in 2015. Her family and friends have published it now to honour her work and to coincide with the centenary of Puccini’s death. This is not the only book by this writer. In 2005 her semi-autobiographical story, Leaning Towards Pisa, was published by Penguin.

Sue Howard had an interesting way with words which paint a variety of images. She has created a feasible story based on one man and his creative achievement.

Puccini’s Butterfly

(2024)

by Sue Howard

Sydney School of Arts & Humanities

ISBN:978-0-6487505-4-3

$24.99; 265pp

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