Today we’re listening to…“Coro a bocca chiusa” (popularly known as “The Humming Chorus”) from Act II of the Italian opera Madame Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini. Set at the beginning of the 20th century in Nagasaki, Japan, Madame Butterfly is a story of love (actually, more of infatuation) between an American naval officer, Pinkerton, and a Japanese geisha, Cio-Cio-San (known to her friends as Madame Butterfly). Charles Rosekrans is conducting the Hungarian State Opera Chorus & Orchestra in the excerpt here.