Puccini–Madama B, Un bel di

Here it is Saturday, and what better time for another dose of unrequited love, this time from Puccini’s masterpiece, Madama Butterfly. In the course of the opera, a Japanese woman falls in love with an American naval officer and has his child. The officer declares his love and sails away, but Butterfly lives for the day he will return to her and his son. The officer does return, but he returns with his wife to claim his son. Butterfly, unable to live without her lover or her son, decides that the only honorable way out is to take her own life through the ceremonial ritual of seppuku.

In the aria Un bel di vedremo, she sings of her reunification with her husband, not knowing of his infidelity. I have included the clip of Rosa Ponselle from her 1919 recording, along with the English translation (with some spelling errors). I have previously attached the Renata Tebaldi version, but I think we could use the simple sincerity of Ponselle right now.