Everything Cio-Cio San does is motivated by pure love, Shirvis said. "And you can't fault her for that." Even when she gives up her child to Kate Pinkerton because she believes her son would have a better life in America. It's an act grounded in love, but it breaks Cio-Cio San's heart. Without Pinkerton and her son, her life is over. And the only way for her to find release is by committing suicide.

"That's what really gets me," Shirvis said. "This Japanese sentiment that if life is no longer worth living, the only quiet and graceful way out of the situation is to kill yourself."

Pinkerton invariably comes across as a scoundrel for not taking his Japanese marriage vows to Cio-Cio San seriously and leaving her, only to return with what he calls his "real," American, wife.

But that's not an accurate view, according to tenor Scott Piper, who returns to Utah Opera as Pinkerton. "If Pinkerton were such a cad, Butterfly wouldn't be waiting for him for years to return," he said.

It's important to remember that Pinkerton was as much in love with Cio-Cio San as she was in him, Piper said. "In Act I he is a young guy who falls in love with Butterfly, and we need to extend that and have him continue to be in love with her at the time he leaves for the U.S."

Fleshing out the untold backstory is important to Piper's conceptualization of Pinkerton and to a better understanding of the story. "We don't know anything about him while he is in the U.S.," Piper said. "But we can imagine what kind of pressure he must have been under from home to leave Japan, and leave without bringing his Japanese bride with him."

If the story would be set during the Vietnam War, Pinkerton's actions would be more understandable, Piper added. "Plenty of American soldiers in Vietnam left children behind when they returned to the States. And I'm sure they had every intention of returning and bringing them back home with them. But memories lessen with time, until you get to the point where you say to yourself, 'Maybe it wasn't what I thought it was.' And that I think is what happened to Pinkerton."

There is no real villain in "Madame Butterfly," Piper said. "We want to find one, but there isn't any. Pinkerton was like any young man. He did what he wanted and didn't listen to anyone."

If you go ...

What: "Madame Butterfly," Utah Opera
Where: Capitol Theatre
When: Saturday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 7:30 p.m.; Oct. 26, 2 p.m.
How much: $13-$83
Phone: 355-2787 or 888-451-2787
Web: utahsymphonyopera.org
Also: Opera preview lecture by musicologist Thomas Cimarusti, Salt Lake City Library Auditorium, Wednesday, 7:30 p.m., free.
Also: Question-and-answer session with Utah Opera Artistic Director Christopher McBeth immediately following each performance in the Founder's Room on the mezzanine level of the Capitol Theatre.

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E-mail: ereichel@desnews.com