from PRX.

I'm Kurt Anderson, and this is the Studio 360 podcast.

This is Jocelyn Gonzalez from Studio 360.

On this podcast extra, we're sharing an episode of a show called

ARIA Code, produced by Radio Station WQXR and the Metropolitan Opera. Grammy Award-winning

host Riannon Giddens and her guests dive into one a feature for a single singer and explore

how these brief musical moments have imprinted themselves

on our collective consciousness.

And some of opera's biggest voices discuss what it takes to stand on the Met Stage and sing them.

Puccini's Madame Butterfly is one of the most loved and hated operas of all time.

It reinforces stereotypes of Asian women, idealizes the West, and the male lead, well, he's a jerk.

But the music is so beautiful. The show's most famous aria comes when Butterfly, a young geisha, prays for the return of her lover.

He's a callous American soldier who's left her alone for three years with their young child.

He finally does return, but with his new American bride.

Aria Code tackles all the notorious aspects of this opera and finds a human story about longing and loyalty behind all the drama.

Here's Aria Code from WQXR and the Metropolitan Opera.

Puccini's Madame Butterfly is ultimately a kind of a psychosexual fantasy about the nature of not just Asian women,

but also Asia itself.

From WQXR in the Metropolitan Opera, this is ARIA code.

I'm Riannon Giddens.

I think that hope is one of the greatest lifelines that we have.

Every episode, we pull back the curtain on a single aria

...