The Woman Who Sang Butterfly at Brescia in 1904: Solomiia Krushelnytska

On May 28, 1904, at the Teatro Grande in the northern Italian town of Brescia, Puccini’s opera Madama Butterfly was performed. It was a revised version of the work that had premiered just three months earlier, in February, at Milan’s La Scala. The title role, Cio-Cio-San, was sung by Solomiia Krushelnytska (Соломія Крушельницька), a singer born in a village in Habsburg-ruled Galicia.

What follows draws on the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine (IEU), published by the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS); the Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine (ESU), published by the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and others; and the production information of Italy’s Centro Studi Giacomo Puccini, as of September 2026. Where the two encyclopedias give different years, both are shown as they are.

From a Galician Village to Lviv and Milan

Both encyclopedias agree that Krushelnytska was born on September 23, 1872, in the village of Biliavyntsi, in what is now Ternopil oblast, and died on November 16, 1952, in Lviv. IEU describes her voice type as “dramatic soprano”; ESU simply as “soprano.”

She graduated from the Lviv Conservatory in 1893, and that same year made her stage debut in Lviv as Leonora in Donizetti’s opera La Favorita. She then went on to study in Milan under Francesco Crespi. The two encyclopedias give different periods for her time studying in Milan — IEU says 1893–1896, ESU says 1893–1894 — and ESU additionally states that she also studied in Vienna in 1895.

Madama Butterfly, 1904

According to the production information of the Puccini research center, Madama Butterfly premiered at Milan’s La Scala on February 17, 1904. Cio-Cio-San in that performance was sung by Rosina Storchio. ESU describes this premiere as having ended in “a great failure.” The work is set in Nagasaki and is also known for its use of Japanese melodies.

Three months later, on May 28, a revised version was performed for the first time at Brescia’s Teatro Grande. The research center summarizes the changes in this version as “dividing Act II into two parts, cutting and adding scenes, and substantially altering the music.” Cio-Cio-San was sung by Krushelnytska, and the conductor was Cleofonte Campanini, the same conductor as at the Milan premiere. ESU states that she was invited by Puccini himself to sing the role.

Can She Be Said to Have “Saved” the Opera?

Krushelnytska is often described as “the singer who saved a failed Madama Butterfly.” As far as we have checked, the encyclopedias do not go that far. IEU’s wording is that her Cio-Cio-San in 1904 “contributed to” the work’s entry into the world’s standard repertoire. ESU writes that Puccini regarded her as “the most beautiful and most enchanting Butterfly,” but does not indicate in which letter or document this remark appears.

According to the research center’s production information, Puccini continued revising the work after Brescia, and in the December 28, 1906 performance at the Opéra-Comique in Paris, he cut Act I, added material to Act II, and substantially changed the ending. The work’s spread was the result not only of its singers but also of these repeated revisions by the composer himself, and we found no primary source supporting the claim that a single singer saved the work.

Stages of Europe and South America

After her debut, Krushelnytska toured opera houses across Europe and South America. However, exactly where and in which years she sang differs in detail between the two encyclopedias.

IEU writes that the 1906 success of Richard Strauss’s Salome at La Scala was thanks to her and the conductor Arturo Toscanini, and that in 1915 she sang the title role in the world premiere of Ildebrando Pizzetti’s Fedra. ESU states that she was the first to sing the leading roles in Salome (1906) and Elektra (1909) in Italy. IEU puts the number of roles in her repertoire at close to 60, and both encyclopedias give her vocal range as three octaves.

Ukrainian Song, and Her Return to Lviv

According to both encyclopedias, she left the opera stage in the mid-1920s and began performing in concert recitals. IEU writes that she liked to sing Ukrainian folk songs, accompanying herself on the piano. ESU notes that the composer Mykola Lysenko dedicated songs to her, and that in 1900 she appeared in Lviv in Semen Hulak-Artemovsky’s opera A Cossack Beyond the Danube. Lysenko is covered in “The Composer Mykola Lysenko, and Taras Bulba, the Opera Never Staged in His Lifetime.”

According to ESU, in 1910 she married the Italian lawyer Riccioni and lived in Viareggio, Italy. She returned to Lviv in 1939 and taught solo voice at the conservatory. The two encyclopedias give different periods for her teaching: IEU says 1944–1952, ESU says 1944–1951.

Where Her Name Remains

ESU lists the following memorial sites and namings.

• In 1963, a memorial museum opened in the village of Bila, in Ternopil oblast, where she spent her girlhood
• In 1989, a museum of music and memorabilia opened in the Lviv house where she lived until 1952
• Lviv’s National Opera and Ballet Theatre bears her name (from 2000, according to IEU and the theater’s own announcement; ESU says 2001)
• Since 1991, an international opera singers’ competition bearing her name has been held in Lviv

According to IEU, the Lviv theater occupies a municipal theater building constructed in 1900, which before that had borne the name of Ivan Franko. The region of Galicia is covered in “Halychyna (Galicia), Podillia, and Slobozhanshchyna: Region Names That Differ From Oblast Names.”