Puccini Madama Butterfly [videorecording] / staged and directed by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle.
Other Titles: Madama Butterfly.
Publisher: New York, NY : Universal Classics Group, 2005.
Description: 1 videodisc (145 min.) : sd., col. ; 4 3/4 in.
Subject(s): Opera.
Opera. bidex
Music videos.
Credits: Director of photography, Wolfgang Treu.
Performers: Mirella Freni, Plácido Domingo, Christa Ludwig, Robert Kerns, Michel Sénéchal, Marius Rintzler, Elke Schary, Giorgio Stendoro.
Target Audience: MPAA rating: Not rated.
Notes: Sung in Italian; subtitles in Italian, English, German, French, Spanish, Chinese.
Summary: The pathos of this heart-rending story about a sweet-natured Japanese girl and the caddish American naval lieutenant who marries then deserts her has seldom been conveyed with such emotional directness. In his sumptuous filming of Puccini's opera, director Jean-Pierre Ponnelle uses an array of cinematic effects to evoke the protagonists' irreconcilably separate lives and worlds. As Butterfly, Mirella Freni is unbearably moving in one of the finest performances of her career, while Plácido Domingo makes Lt. Pinkerton a more sympathetic figure than usual.