Page "Madama Butterfly" Paragraph 16

18.

C ’ e.

Entrate.

(" She ’ s there.

Go in .").

Sharpless greets her, " Excuse me, Madam Butterfly.

" Without looking to see who is speaking, Butterfly corrects him, " Madam Pinkerton, please.

" As she turns and sees that it is Sharpless who has spoken, she exclaims in happiness, " My very dear Consul.

Welcome to this American home.

" Sharpless draws a letter from his pocket and tells her, " Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton has written to me.

" Sharpless tells her that Pinkerton is perfectly well, and she says, " I am the happiest woman in Japan.

" Butterfly asks him, " When do the robins make their nests in America?

" The question confuses Sharpless, so Butterfly explains that Pinkerton promised to return to her " when the robin builds his nest again.

" She says that, in Japan, the robin has already built his nest three times, and she asks if " over there he nests less frequently.

" Sharpless, mortified, tells her that he does not know because he has not studied ornithology.

At this, Butterfly hears Goro laugh, and she whispers to Sharpless that Goro is a bad man.

She tells him that, after Pinkerton left, Goro came to her many times " with presents to palm off this or that husband on me.

" She says that Goro now wants her to agree to marry the wealthy man Yamadori, who then is arriving with his entourage to a musical accompaniment that quotes the same Japanese folk tune that Gilbert and Sullivan set as " Mi-ya sama " in The Mikado.