Opera:flags (2026)

Puccini’s Madama Butterfly (1904) offers the most devastating flag in all opera: the American stars and stripes on Pinkerton’s ship, and later, the white flag of surrender. Butterfly places a white flag—actually a Japanese peace banner—on her child’s eyes before killing herself. This single prop recapitulates the entire opera’s tragedy: the failure of cross-cultural union, the brutality of naval power, and the substitution of love with national allegiance. The white flag, usually a sign of military submission, becomes here an intimate cloth of maternal sacrifice. Puccini scores absolute silence as it drops—a musical flag of its own.

Change a flag from Default to Enabled or Disabled using the dropdown menu on the right. opera:flags

Enter opera://flags (or chrome://flags ) into the Opera address bar and press Enter. The white flag, usually a sign of military