Talk about gilding the lily. The original aria is delicate and tender and completely heartbreaking in the context of the story.
The OperaBabes (seriously, that’s their name) version is mindless elevator music. It was part of a mix CD I got during a summer semester in college. I didn’t know much about the original opera, let alone the story, and, being totally addicted to rhythm then as I am now, I thought it was really catchy and great exercise music. And then years passed and I heard the story behind Madame Butterfly and had an excellent “facepalm” moment.
The Daily Tune-Up 
I’m enjoying this week’s theme very much. You are a brave woman.
Posting this item, dreadful though it may be, appears to be more timely than you may realize–the WP entry about Operababes indicates that this track became prominent when ITV used it as a theme for its 2002 World Cup programming.
Oh god I remember that! I was still in in Britain at the time so I was watching a lot of ITV. Oh man. Thank you for deepening this vaguely unpleasant memory. You’re the best.