In some cases they are very beautiful and haunting for example, the melodies of the first chorus and the Love-Duet, the Consuls motive, and perhaps finest of all, Butterflys farewell to her child. If Puccinis own melodies are in themselves not always original - they occasionally remind us of Gounod, Verdi, and others - his treatment of them is uniformly happy. Yet the composers nationality betrays itself in orchestration and otherwise, and certainly none but an Italian could have written the great Love-Duet. Indeed, in several cases Japanese melodies have been incorporated in the score, notably the melody which accompanies Goros enumeration of the guests, the Butterfly motive, and the Yamadori theme, so strongly reminiscent of the Mikados theme in Sullivans masterpiece. Particularly so are certain parts distinguished by archaic intervals and restless tonality. The music allotted to Pinkerton and Sharpless has naturally no Japanese flavour, and the love music is not specially Oriental in character, for love is cosmopolitan and its language universal but the rest of the work is essentially Japanese. The first bars take the listener to Japan, and he leaves that land of flowers only when the last chord has brought down the curtain.

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