Miss Saigon is based in part on the classic Puccini opera, Madame Butterfly. Originally a novella by John Luther Long, it was based on a story his sister told him from her stay in Japan as part of a missionary couple. Long chose David Belasco to adapt it for the stage. It was very successful in both the United States and Europe. During its first European tour, Puccini saw it, and decided to make it into an opera.
The opera takes place in Nagasaki, early in the twentieth century, and tells of a 15-year-old geisha named Cio-Cio-San (Madame Butterfly of the opera’s title) who marries B. F. Pinkerton, an officer in the United States Navy. Despite the warnings of the American consul Sharpless, Pinkerton treats the matter of the marriage lightly. A few years later, abandoned by Pinkerton shortly after the wedding, Cio-Cio-San awaits his return, along with their son, nicknamed “Trouble.” When visited by Sharpless, she insists her husband will return, and the consul can not bring himself to read from a letter received from Pinkerton in which he tells him he has married an American woman. A cannon shot announces the arrival of a ship: it is Pinkerton’s. Cio-Cio-San and her companion Suzuki decorate the house, anticipating his return.
The next morning, Pinkerton arrives to the house with his wife Kate, but is suddenly overcome with guilt and leaves. Having heard about the existence of the child, they tell Suzuki they have come to take the child with them. Butterfly tells Kate she will give the child to Pinkerton if he personally comes to get him. After sending the child away, she kills herself with her father’s ceremonial dagger; Pinkerton arrives to find her dead.
There have been numerous stage productions and film adaptations of this story, but it was the Pucinni version that Boublil and Schönberg used as their model for Miss Saigon.