I recently received an email that Surflight Theatre in Beach Haven is going to perform Puccini’s opera “Madame Butterfly.” My interest was piqued by the information that the opera was based on a short story written by John Luther Long as he sat on the porch of a house in Spray Beach on Long Beach Island. The house is still there.

I turned to the 1914 edition of Lure of Long Beach, written by George B. Somerville to learn more about Spray Beach.

“Below Beach Haven Terrace is Spray Beach, the summer home of John Luther Long, playwright and author of Madame…