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Puccini: Madama Butterfly -- 1974 film version/Von Karajan [DVD] [NTSC]
 
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Puccini: Madama Butterfly -- 1974 film version/Von Karajan [DVD] [NTSC]

DVD ~ Mirella Freni
4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

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Puccini: Madama Butterfly -- 1974 film version/Von Karajan [DVD] [NTSC]
57% buy the item featured on this page:
Puccini: Madama Butterfly -- 1974 film version/Von Karajan [DVD] [NTSC] 4.3 out of 5 stars (3)
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Product details

  • Actors: Mirella Freni, Plácido Domingo, Christa Ludwig, Robert Kerns, Michel Sénéchal
  • Directors: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle
  • Writers: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, David Belasco, Giuseppe Giacosa, Jean-Louis Martinoty, Luigi Illica
  • Producers: Fritz Buttenstedt
  • Format: NTSC, Colour, Dolby, DVD-Video, PAL
  • Language English
  • Subtitles: French
  • Region: All Regions
  • Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Classification: Exempt
  • Studio: Decca
  • DVD Release Date: 15 Oct 2001
  • Run Time: 144 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B00005OC06
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 124,291 in DVD (See Bestsellers in DVD)

    Popular in this category:

    #76 in  DVD > Musicals & Classical > Opera > Composers > Puccini

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Reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
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 superb, 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 Phil. The singers mime to pre-recorded 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.

On the DVD: Madama Butterfly is presented disappointingly on disc in a poor NTSC transfer full of distracting graininess that makes every scene, both inside and out, look like it takes place in an omnipresent drizzle. Sound is reasonable stereo and adequate 5.0 surround. There are subtitles in the major European languages as well as Chinese, and the booklet contains a background essay plus synopsis. --Mark Walker

DVD Description
Audio: AC3 Dolby Digital 5.0 Surround, LPCM Stereo
Aspect ratio: 4:3
Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish, Chinese
Menu screen: English, Chinese

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Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
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 (2)
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Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars "He'll call `Butterfly' from the distance", 22 April 2007
By bernie "xyzzy" (Arlington, Texas) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)      
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)

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.

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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The best way to indulge oneself, 9 Dec 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: Madama Butterfly [VHS] [1974] (VHS Tape)
With two of the best ever opera stars this performance of Madama Butterfly has a head start. I love this interpretation and it is my favourite opera. Domingo is outstanding in both his acting and vocal performance of this role of Pinkerton. The sincerity and flippancy of the character is evident and his voice is superb. As for Mirella Freni, she makes an excellent Butterfly. Her mixture of naievity and passion is exactly right for this role. She makes you really believe and emapthise with the characters love for Pinkerton and her inocence of life. I would say that if you buy only one version of this wonderful opera it should be this one. All the characters are portrayed excellently. The singing is divine and the setting magnificent. Every act is a joy to behold but for me the most magical is the first. This truly is the best way to indulge yourself and can be enjoyed over and over again.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful Butterfly lost in the fog., 5 Mar 2006
This review is from: Madama Butterfly - Puccini [DVD] [1974] [NTSC] (DVD)
This could have been a truly memorable performance had it not been ruined by the stage Director. Musically, you will be very hard pressed to find a better Butterfly. Mirella Freni has a fresh and full voice in 1974 and delivers the demands of the title role with superb singing and wonderful acting. Her big expressive eyes, although neither Japanese nor fifteen years of age, portray all the agony that this young woman was subjected to. Her singing matches these emotions with great warmth and vocal accuracy, although at times you hear her sing but you do not see her sing as the soundtrack was superimposed onto the film at a latter stage and the principals do not mimic their own singing convincingly all the time. Placido Domingo is in truly great voice, one of his best ever vocal performances on DVD. His acting is superb, portraying the arrogant American sailor. Christa Ludwig is a jewel in the set. Both her very fine singing and her emotional acting bring a perfect portrayal of Butterfly's maid. Robert Kerns is a very good Sharpless (the American Consul) and Michel Sénéchal portrays a very vulgar Italian-style marriage broker. The Vienna Philharmonic under Herbert von Karajan provide an incredible orchestral background and under Karajan's direction the entire singing and flow of this very dramatic score reaches the finest climaxes imaginable.
So why do I give only 4 stars. Almost the entire opera is filmed on a non-discript fog bound colourless heath, covered by dry grass. Is this Mr Ponnelle's idea of a Japanese garden during the cherry blossom ? If it is, the man has a weird and twisted view of this world, a world in which the word beauty has no place. The man, judging him from his other stagings of operas, like the "Barber of Seville" also on DGG DVD, has taste. So what happened here? What have we ordinary mortals and viewers of this performance done to deserve such treatment? Having said all that, he still does provide us wit some lovely shots of the opera, but unfortunately these are rare compared to that terrible fog and the colourless heath. A filmed theatrical performance would have been much preferable.
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