Puccini - Madama Butterfly

Puccini - Madama Butterfly
by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle

Puccini - Madama Butterfly
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DVD Cover Information

Actor: Christa Ludwig, Michel S?n?chal, Mirella Freni, Pl?cido Domingo, Robert Kerns
Director: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle
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: Italian (Original Language), DTS 5.0; English (Original Language); German (Original Language); French (Original Language); Spanish (Original Language); Mandarin Chinese (Original Language); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); German (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Italian (Subtitled)
Format: Classical, Color, DTS Surround Sound, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 146 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-06-14
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Deutsche Grammophon

Movie Reviews of Puccini - Madama Butterfly

Movie Review: Mesmerizing
Summary: 5 Stars

This version of Madama Butterfly is simply astonishing. Freni and Domingo are magnificent and Von Karajan, once again, proves to be the great maestro of all times. I watched this dvd with some friends and all of us were moved,some to tears, at the power of the performances.

Summary of Puccini - Madama Butterfly

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 Pl?cido 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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