Puccini - Madama Butterfly
by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Christa Ludwig, Michel Sénéchal, Mirella Freni, Plácido Domingo, Robert KernsDirector: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle
Brand: Universal Studios
Cinematographer: Ernst Wild
Cinematographer: Wolfgang Treu
Writer: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle
Producer: Fritz Buttenstedt
Writer: David Belasco
Writer: Giuseppe Giacosa
Writer: Jean-Louis Martinoty
Writer: Luigi Illica
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); German (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Italian (Subtitled); Italian (Original Language), DTS 5.0; English (Original Language); German (Original Language); French (Original Language); Spanish (Original Language); Mandarin Chinese (Original Language)
Format: Classical, Color, DTS Surround Sound, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 146 minutes
Published: 2011-05-05
DVD Release Date: 2005-06-14
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Deutsche Grammophon
Movie Reviews of Puccini - Madama Butterfly
Movie Review: comparaison non comparaison..
Summary: 5 Stars
Reading some of the other reviews here, I wonder if I'm in the same universe. I feared this dvd for a long time, having been bleached of hope by years of indifferent if not hostile reviews and commentary about it. I think Puccini planned that NO performance of Butterfly would ever truly be sufficient, truly right. But surely, Ponnelle's valiant film effort comes close. For me, closer than any other available dvd version. Two reasons front and center - the singing of Mirella Freni and Karajan's handling of the score with the Vienna Philharmonic. Having just this past week watched the Butterflys of Cedolins and Barker, Freni's magnificent singing is proof that the mitred age of Italian opera is passed. Any musician knows there's no comparison between Freni's singing and that of Cedolins and Barker, both of whom offer respectable enough versions of the score. Freni sings grand opera from the inside out, and THAT grace is found missing in every other available dvd of this opera. If the exposition of the human voice, yes even in verismo art, is your reason for opera, this film will love you, and you it. Mirella Freni's musicianly command of Puccini's eternally fecund score is overwhelming from beginning to end. The singing is epic, intelligent and purged of self regard. No less fertile is Karajan's intense way with Puccini, fevered but ever cool, ever rigorous. The Vienna orchestra finesses textures like a cat, every nuance cared for with golden perfection - it's a beautiful thing! Christa Ludwig embraces the role of Suzuki with incomparable singing and a riveting attentiveness as Cio-Cio-San's confidant. Her singing of the incantations that open Act 2 is easily equal to Cossotto's turn with Price. Forget the complaints about lonely heaths and cramped houses. Ponnelle creates a bewitching exterior with coastal grasses; the interior sets are never onerous or pretentious, reaching in fact a tremendous peacefulness by film's end. Ponnelle's genius with colors and texture, and certainly his motive behind the camera is remarkable, emotional, noble. What more can you ask for? The discolation from lip-synching is noticable but minimal, and even used to engaging advantage by Cio-Cio-San who occasionally assumes interior reflection by eschewing singing altogether, something impossible on a live stage. It's not perfect but damned near, a worthwhile filmed vision of an inexhaustible opera.
Summary of Puccini - Madama Butterfly
PUCCINI:MADAMA BUTTERFLY - DVD MovieOf 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
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