| Puccini - Madama Butterfly | 
| Director: Jean-pierre Ponnelle
Actors: Mirella Freni, Placido Domingo, Christa Ludwig, Robert Kerns, Michel Senechal
Studio: Deutsche Grammophon
Category: DVD
List Price: $29.98
Buy New: $16.64
You Save: $13.34 (44%)
Buy New/Used from $16.64
Avg. Customer Rating:   (31 reviews)
Sales Rank: 10290
Format: Classical, Subtitled, Color, Dts Surround Sound
Languages: Italian (Original Language), 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)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD
Running Time: 146 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Discs: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: 000428209
UPC: 044007340370
EAN: 0044007340370
ASIN: B0007P0LO8
Release Date: June 14, 2005
Theatrical Release Date: 1974
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Similar Items:
| • | Puccini - La Boheme / Pavarotti, Scotto, Niska, Wixell, Plishka, Levine, Metropolitan Opera | | • | Puccini - Turandot / Franco Zeffirelli - Marton, Domingo, Mitchell, Plishka, Cuenod - James Levine, MET (1988) | | • | Leoncavallo - I Pagliacci / Mascagni - Cavalleria Rusticana / Domingo, Stratas, Pons, Bruson, Obraztsova, Pretre | | • | Verdi - Aida / Levine, Domingo, Millo, Metropolitan Opera | | • | Puccini - Tosca / Kabaivanska, Domingo, Milnes, Luccardi, Mariotti, Bartoletti |
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| Editorial Reviews:
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 Placido 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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| Customer Reviews: Read 26 more reviews...
 The Many Faces of Madame Butterfly May 11, 2008
From the David Belasco play to Puccini's opera to Schonberg's Miss Saigon, there are many faces of Madame Butterfly. But none is any more exquisite than that of Mirella Freni-- especially as she sings the near-perfect aria, "Un bel di" and the Flower Song duet with Suzuki. However, Ponnelle, who staged and directed the film version, made Placido Domingo as Lt. Pinkerton a little too caddish for my taste. This version seems to resemble a faded memory that speaks not to the intellect but to the heart. It certainly deserves a place in any opera collection.
 PAL or OTHER system February 13, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I did look for a dvd like this but I did not found if it was PAL or other system, now I got the wrong system and I did send a mail to AMAZON without any reaction. It's not my way to make trouble and so I keep it but I know that the service is bad.
Rob de Jong Holland
Amazing Singers - Bad Movie December 13, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
If you're looking for a screen adaptation of Madama Butterfly, your best bet would be to choose Madame Butterfly made in 1995 starring Richard Troxell. This dvd version is barely above a filmed stage version, and perhaps a filmed stage version would have been better than the absolutely atrocious staging. If you are looking for a fantastic version of Madama Butterfly to listen to, then get the recording with Freni and Domingo. The acting in this dvd is definitely a reason to get it, if only for Mirella Freni and Christa Ludwig, who make this movie in the part of acting. Domingo has a great voice but the acting is so-so. If you can get past the complete lack of budget for this movie (Butterfly's 'kimono' doesn't even have the sleeves finished, if you notice, they're fraying because they were just cut) and past the fact that Pinkerton is in a t-shirt, then this is a decent dvd. Get this for the vocals alone, but get the newer version of a visual and aural experience that will be the only version of Madame Butterfly you'll ever need.
madama butterfly not my favourite November 26, 2007
We were disappointed with this first viewing of Madama Butterfly. We found it melodramatic rather than tragic which may be attributed to the production. The flashbacks, dream sequences and "inner thought vocals" were annoying, the lighting was poor and too contrived in many of the scenes, the staging was good but not great and fading between scenes was disastrous. The vocals were very good... but I love Freni.
 comparaison non comparaison.. November 14, 2007
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.
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