Puccini - Madama Butterfly / Freni, Domingo, Ludwig, Kerns, Senechal, von Karajan

Starring:Mirella Freni, PlÃ¡cido Domingo, Christa Ludwig, Robert Kerns, Michel SÃ©nÃ©chal, Giorgio Stendoro, Marius Rintzler, Elke Schary
Director: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle
Studio: Deutsche Grammophon
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
Of all Puccini's major operas, the intimate tragedy of Madama Butterfly is least in need of elaborate staging and might therefore benefit most from the close scrutiny of film. The story is domestic, the setting Spartan, the incidental characters kept to a minimum. This 1974 version, however, demonstrates that Butterfly still needs a healthy injection of proscenium arch melodrama. Director Jean-Pierre Ponelle's production strives for realism but remains unfortunately studio-bound, having neither the benefit of location filming nor the heightened reality of an opera stage. The exterior is a perpetually fog-shrouded heath of indeterminate locale; the interior is cramped and unadorned. The setting is just too prosaic to contain the epic emotions of grand opera.

Amazon.com

Of all Puccini's major operas, the intimate tragedy of Madama Butterfly is least in need of elaborate staging and might therefore benefit most from the close scrutiny of film. The story is domestic, the setting Spartan, the incidental characters kept to a minimum. This 1974 version, however, demonstrates that Butterfly still needs a healthy injection of proscenium arch melodrama. Director Jean-Pierre Ponelle's production strives for realism but remains unfortunately studio-bound, having neither the benefit of location filming nor the heightened reality of an opera stage. The exterior is a perpetually fog-shrouded heath of indeterminate locale; the interior is cramped and unadorned. The setting is just too prosaic to contain the epic emotions of grand opera.

Thankfully, the cast is a superb one, headed by Plácido Domingo's rakish Pinkerton and Mirella Freni's rubicund Butterfly. Their singing is incomparable, as is Herbert von Karajan's musical direction of the Vienna Philharmonic. The singers mime to prerecorded music, which is occasionally disconcerting since when film demands close-ups, opera provides broad gestures. Musically, this Butterfly is impeccable. Visually it adds nothing that could not be seen to better effect in a stage version. --Mark Walker

Customer Reviews:

"He'll call `Butterfly' from the distance".......2007-04-22

It is the late 1800's. An American naval captain, Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton (Plácido Domingo) is stationed in Japan. As is tradition he has a girl in every port. That is except Japan. So he is matched up with a poverty stricken teen Cio-Cio-San, known as Butterfly (Mirella Freni.) Butterfly dumps her old religion (which infuriates her relatives) and clings to Pinkerton. Naturally the day will come when Pinkerton will need a proper American wife. So how does Cio-Cio react? (Puccini music at his best.) The story based on John Luther Long's novella about the relationship between an American navel officer and a former geisha.

At first this looks like a 60's movie with voiceover. Placido looks a little like an Italian Hercules. But as time grows on you realize that they actually did a pretty good job of staging. There are plenty of implications that are not in the songs; so the story is better fleshed out than many of the stage versions. Naturally this film can not compete with live performances but it defiantly is worth it for the music and they are not dressed up in bug suits with antenni. This movie does gibe the impression that Puccini did not like Americans.

Butterfly dies...but NOT soon enough..........2006-06-27

I have a large collection of opera dvds. Many people only prefer to purchase staged versions, but I don't mind movie versions as well. They give you an entirely new prospective to the story...if its done well. This production of Butterfly is one of the worst productions of ANYTHING that I have ever seen. Once you see the opening scene, when Domingo begins running through a random field, you should brace yourself, because it only goes downhill from there. The singing is quite good, but the cinematography and the staging is absolutely attrocious. The camera angles are just bad and the sequence from Act 2 to Act 3 (which is all done as one act in this production) looks very, very, STUPID. The best part of this production is Butterfly's death, which leaves Pinkerton in a state of...well, you just have to see it. That is the only promising piece of staging in the whole production. If you want to save some money, I would not suggest buying this production unless you want to get a couple of opera friends together, and have a nice laugh...

Come on, people...it isn't that bad.......2006-05-30

I can't understand all this carping about how rotten Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's film is. Okay, this isn't Orson Welles. The film is certainly flawed, with a few cheesy moments, most of which have been mentioned in other reviews(the opening, with Domingo in a T-shirt comically running through a paper wall, the bizarre dream sequence, Goro as a bucktoothed stereotype). These flaws are what prevent me from giving the film a five star rating. But there are also some very beautiful moments, and besides, from an aural standpoint, you aren't going to find a better performance of Madama Butterfly ANYWHERE. Get a grip, folks. To hear Freni and Domingo at their prime singing what is arguably Puccini's greatest score(it is certainly his most beautiful) conducted by Herbert von Karajan, and for under twenty dollars, I would be willing to put up with the singers running around in clown makeup for two-and-a-half hours. The music making on this disc is simply too good not to be recommended just because the filmmaker's ambitions occasionally tax his reach.

For me, a good opera film captures the mood of the music. Butterfly is probably Puccini's most atmospheric, lush, and dreamy score(although La Fanciulla del West is stiff competition), and Ponnelle's film is appropriately dreamlike. Let's use the marvelous love duet that ends the first act as an example. For me, this duet, along with Liu's death scene from Turandot, represents Puccini at the very height of his musical-dramatic brilliance. The music is rapturous and erotic, delaying the crescendo until the moment becomes almost unbearable. Ponnelle paints this music in dreamlike images of ever-increasing passion. Granted, this film was made in 1974, so some of the more trippy moments might seem a little dated, but if you take that into account, the moment is beautifully filmed, haunting and evocative, just like the score. The image perfectly matches the music...isn't that what opera on film is all about? If this were the only example of this perfect union of sound and vision, then I would be less enthusiastic about the film as a whole, but throughout most of Madama Butterfly, Ponnelle manages that lush, languorous tide of images that matches Puccini's flowing music.

Regarding the sound portion, as I said before, you won't hear Butterfly performed better, that is a guarantee. Mirella Freni IS Cio-Cio-San, the innocence, the passion, the self-delusion, the heartbreak. Oh, and she sings the role to perfection, capturing the character's timidity and strength. Butterfly's entrance is probably my favorite musical entrance in all opera, and hearing Freni's singing, quiet at first and from a distance, gradually building as she and her bridal party make their arrival, is a breathtaking moment, outclassing any staged production I have ever seen. A very young Placido Domingo is in prime voice, and is ideally cast as the rake B.F. Pinkerton, initially cavalier to the point of being cruel, later violently regretful(too little, too late). He does look somewhat risible running in slow motion with his arms flailing about in his handlebar mustache, but overall he is a fine romantic lead. Robert Kerns has a strong and compassionate baritone voice, which matches his character's best qualities, the voice of reason, Pinkerton's disregarded conscience. Having Christa Ludwig in the role of Suzuki might be considered luxury casting, since her character is less prominent, but she makes the most of her time onstage as the matronly confidante to Butterfly, she is definitely at her prime vocally at this point in her career. Von Karajan's conducting is also in its prime, not as slow as it sometimes is, or else I didn't notice it because the slowness matches the languid tempo of much of the music. The sound quality is clear and full-bodied enough that hardly any of the notes are obscured.

Forget the negative reviews. If you love Butterfly, give this a chance. There are flaws, but considering the strengths of the performances and of much of the film, those flaws are easily overlooked.

Shame,Shame,Shame!!!.......2006-05-07

How can a respected company like DG can issue a DVD with such a poor film quality?

Karajan magnificent in unique treatment of familiar tragedy.......2006-05-05

I completely disagree with some of the reviewers. How easy it is to misunderstand a fine director's intentions!
The story of "Butterfly" is one of the most sordid tragedy in all opera repertoire. Think about it. An innocent 15 year old girl to escape poverty, thru a profit-hungry marriage broker, marries an opportunistic and unscrupulous American sea captain who seduces and abandons her.. She is cursed and abandoned by society, robbed of her child and driven to suicide.
So what do the reviewers want? Pretty Japanese scenery with Fujijama in the background?
The director created a unique film that's atmospheric, surrealistic, colorless to suit this story. The set: a nondescript cottage surrounded by a depressing barren field. Characters are well drawn, even the secondary ones. (eg. the grotesque but frightening Goro or the terrifying Bonzo).
It is unfortunate that the 15 year old Cio-Cio San is played by a much older singer which is illusion destroying, but Mirella Freni is superb, it is HER role.
Musically this set is absolutely without equal,(perhaps the magical Sinopoli comes near,but that's a CD) but I must emphasize the contribution of Karajan, who is the genius behind it all. I never thought he was a Puccini fan, but obviously he has a special feeling for this work. He takes a dramatic view of the score and almost re-discovers the opera. His ear for detail is uncanny, the love-duet is sensuous with soaring melodic lines, the great aria (Un bel di) rarely sounded more dramatic, full of emotion. It just builds and builds! And the 3rd act is so powerful, it will leave you breathless. You won't forget this film easily.

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