The greater part of the Act 1 restorations fall into the category of “genre” sequences. They  give us more of Cio-Cio-San’s family, of Japanese domestic customs and taste in appetizers, and of Pinkerton’s condescending attitudes toward all. None of this is poorly written or unpleasant as pastime. But except for the enhanced presence of the comically drunken Uncle Yakusidé, who even has a little song, the relatives’ characters and their emotional significance for Butterfly are insufficiently defined to carry any individual weight, and only add some mild confusion to the  function of the family group as the bond to Butterfly’s Japanese identity, even as she takes leave of it with her American husband.^(I) Further, the stroke of the gong and sudden intrusion of The Bonze is musically weakend by positioning it as an interruption to Yakusidé’s silly/tipsy second verse rather than to the benign lilt of the “O Kami” ensemble. I’m not in agreement with Budden that the family entourage is necessarily “offensive” and “ridiculous” (that depends on performance, and uncles who get drunk and sing dumb songs are everywhere), but on first hearing I think I am with him on restoring a passage in the love duet (pp. 109 f.) wherein Butterfly momentarily recalls her first reaction to the notion of marrying an American “barbarian.” It makes for stronger dramatic continuity, and it’s good music.

The reversion to 1904 becomes more substantive in Act 3, where it affects the central characters more drastically. First, Pinkerton is deprived of the brief but emotionally potent romanza “Addio, fiorito asil” (which, inconveniently, has become a “highlight” of the standard edition), and instead departs ignominiously after the trio with Sharpless and Suzuki and the brief exchange with Sharpless. Then, the encounter between Butterfly and Kate Pinkerton is brought forward and extended into a direct exchange, in which Kate identifies herself as the “causa innocente” of Butterfly’s anguish (a description subsequently re-assigned to Sharpless), asks her pardon, requests that Butterfly entrust the child to her, and extends her hand (not taken) before leaving. Finally, there is a somewhat different development of “Tu, tu, piccolo Iddio” (Budden for some reason does not comment on this). And, throughout, there is a more continuous presence of the child and an alternate handling of the suicide—though without access to the critical edition, I can’t determine how much of this is in the writing and how much in the staging of this production.