***This review was first published in the Asian Review of Books French literature has had an outsized influence on Italian opera. “Rigoletto,” “Manon Lescaut,” “La traviata,” “Tosca,” “L’elisir d’amore,” “La bohème” and even “Turandot” all have French antecedents. Less well appreciated is that Giacomo Puccini’s iconic “Madama Butterfly” is ultimately, if indirectly, derived from a now obscure French novel. Pierre {…}