- Actors: Ying Huang, Richard Troxell, Ning Liang, Richard Cowan, Jing Ma Fan
- Directors: Frédéric Mitterrand
- Writers: Frédéric Mitterrand, Giuseppe Giacosa, Luigi Illica
- Producers: Ahmed Baha Attia, Daniel Toscan du Plantier, Karima Ladjimi, Pierre-Olivier Bardet
- Format: PAL
- Language Italian
- Subtitles: English
- Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats.)
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9 - 1.85:1
- Number of discs: 1
- Classification: PG
- Studio: Sony Pictures
- DVD Release Date: 4 Mar 2002
- Run Time: 134 minutes
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B00005U0HI
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 39,152 in Film & TV (See Top 100 in Film & TV)
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Reviews
Amazon.co.uk Review
Like the finest of film scores with its fluid beauty and succession of intensely romantic tunes, Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly has a surprisingly cinematic feel. In 1995 director Frederic Mitterand exploited this quality of the story, exposing a young woman's disillusionment against a backdrop of cultural chasms. Shot on location, with Tunisia doubling convincingly as a turn of the century Nagasaki, this Butterfly shines with fragile beauty. The house becomes a brilliantly used set; airy and full of the scent of flowers and at the same time a cage for the trapped woman. Archive footage of bygone Nagasaki is used skilfully to underline the distance between the 15-year-old bride and Pinkerton.
Purists may prefer a more traditionally robust, stage-bound Butterfly, but you'd be hard-pressed to find a more visually heartbreaking interpretation. Chinese soprano Ying Huang doesn't rock the rafters with her vocal power; hers is a tender, delicately observed performance. Tenor Richard Troxton's self-seeking Pinkerton is well sung. Overall, this is a haunting cinematic treatment of an enduringly popular opera.
On the DVD: Madame Butterfly is presented in a letterbox widescreen format (enhanced for 16:9 widescreen televisions). The Dolby Digital surround soundtrack engulfs the listener in some of Puccini's most memorable tunes, stringing you out and leaving you emotionally spent. The main special feature is a charming portrait of Ying Huan, providing interesting insights into how the film was made and how she won the role. --Piers Ford
DVD Description
DVD Special Features:
Ying HUang: Portrait of a Butterfly Featurette
Theatrical Trailer
Languages: Italian
Dolby Digital Suround
Subtitles: Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish
1.85:1 Aspect Ratio
Enhanced for 16:9 Widescreen TVs
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
57 of 57 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
This version of Madame Butterfly is simply stunning, the cinemagraphic approach provides a rich visual feast that captivates your heart from the first bar till the last. The use of a mixed western, asian cast also brings a sense of realism to the piece that many stage productions lack. This DVD provides the viewer with an introduction to opera that is hard to surpass.
36 of 36 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Mitterand's version of Madame Butterfly is that extreme rarity, a beautifully acted, beautifully sung, beautifully filmed movie version of an opera. The cast is suited, in age and appearance, to their characters, which is hardly ever the case in stage productions. Ying Huang, who as Butterfly, carries most of the weight of the drama, gives a particularly heartbreaking performance. Yes, be warned, this is the weepiest of stories and you will need a good supply of tissues close to hand.
The cinematography is employed to great effect, enough to make this more than just a filmed stage production, yet not so much as would detract from the tightly focused drama. Any filmed opera has the problem of what to do with the intermezzo. Do you omit it? Do you leave the screen blank? Mitterand's solution is to retain the music and show actual film footage of early twentieth-century Japan as a visual filler. I think this works very well and helps to support the overall realistic feel of the movie.
There is just one false note: at the wedding, the gonze (Buddhist priest) appears as a supernatural figure, floating through the air. There is no good reason for this and it simply detracts from the dramatic impact of the moment. No matter, this remains an unmissable movie for all actual and potential opera lovers. Just be prepared to cry and cry and cry...
72 of 73 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
I loved the film when I first saw it and I loved it again when I saw it on DVD. Cried my heart out at the end. There are little thoughtful touches, such as Butterfly insisting on wearing American clothes, or putting Christian icons together with her ancestor temple, or the way the two lovers look at each other during the famous duet "Dolce notte, quante stelle" (one is self absorbed, the other one is absorbed in her husband), the fact that we are given a glimpse of what awaits Butterfly if she doesn't commit suicide, all this show that the director has given careful thought to everything that could enhance the story and music.
One query, though. There were no Italian subtitles. There is an impressive choice of Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish. But no Italian. This is bad for Italians, of course, but not only them: I think that many opera lovers (regardless of their nationality) familiar with the meaning of the words would also like to read the Italian libretto while it is sung.
One query, though. There were no Italian subtitles. There is an impressive choice of Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish. But no Italian. This is bad for Italians, of course, but not only them: I think that many opera lovers (regardless of their nationality) familiar with the meaning of the words would also like to read the Italian libretto while it is sung.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Is Madam Butterfly right for a newbie?
I've only just discovered opera, but have seized it with the passion of a convert.
This production is very sensitively constructed. Read more
This production is very sensitively constructed. Read more
Published 19 months ago by marko
Puccini; Madame Butterfly 1995 film version ( DVD1997)
The filming of this Opera directed by Frenchman Frederic Mitterrand is absolutely beautiful. The Bay, the House and scenery look so authentic like a traditional Japanese painting... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Derek Vernon-morris
How do I say this?
I bought this as part of a three Puccini deal from Amazon. The Terfel Tosca (oh yes, yes, yes!). A passable La Boheme ( I can't remember which one, I have three) and this. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Nanome
Most excellent rendition
I have seen several versions of Madame Butterfly, both in person and on film. I can say that this is truly one of if not the best presentation. I was pleasantly surprised. Read more
Published on 22 May 2010 by bernie
chris weatherley
Sublime !
For all of you with teenage daughters who weep and wail at Titanic this is the movie to start them on their path of addiction to Opera - the passion - the... Read more
For all of you with teenage daughters who weep and wail at Titanic this is the movie to start them on their path of addiction to Opera - the passion - the... Read more
Published on 20 Feb 2010 by C. Spencer Weatherley
Can't fail to be moved
Madame Butterfly is one of those operas that, if done badly, can be pretty dull. If done well, though, it can be extraordinary, and this movie is done very well. Read more
Published on 7 Feb 2010 by Mr. N. J. Mcadam-roberts
Beautiful and moving
This is one of the best versions of Madame Butterfly I've seen. Only someone with the hardest of hearts could fail to be moved.
Published on 2 Aug 2009 by M. Dean
Yes But....
This DVD has much to recommend it. However the sequence where the Uncle literally floats over the crowd in some sort of homage to Japanese fantasy folk lore (! Read more
Published on 6 July 2009 by Adrian Drew
Madame Butterfly
I had asked for a music disc of MB for Xmas and was a touch dismayed to receive this however I thoroughly enjoyed it, more so than the theatre production, and found it extremely... Read more
Published on 1 Mar 2009 by S. Wetton
Superb opera movie
This was the first opera i ever saw and was blessed to watch it at the Vienna Film Festival on a summers evening in an open square alongside 5,000 other people. Read more
Published on 20 Jan 2009 by Prolific Reader
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