Cheap Puccini - Madama Butterfly / Freni, Domingo, Ludwig, Kerns, Senechal, von Karajan (DVD) Price

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Customer Reviews of Puccini - Madama Butterfly / Freni, Domingo, Ludwig, Kerns, Senechal, von Karajan

Come on, people...it isn't that bad
I can't understand all this carping about how rotten Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's film is. Okay, this isn't Orson Welles. The film is certainly flawed, with a few cheesy moments, most of which have been mentioned in other reviews(the opening, with Domingo in a T-shirt comically running through a paper wall, the bizarre dream sequence, Goro as a bucktoothed stereotype). These flaws are what prevent me from giving the film a five star rating. But there are also some very beautiful moments, and besides, from an aural standpoint, you aren't going to find a better performance of Madama Butterfly ANYWHERE. Get a grip, folks. To hear Freni and Domingo at their prime singing what is arguably Puccini's greatest score(it is certainly his most beautiful) conducted by Herbert von Karajan, and for under twenty dollars, I would be willing to put up with the singers running around in clown makeup for two-and-a-half hours. The music making on this disc is simply too good not to be recommended just because the filmmaker's ambitions occasionally tax his reach. <
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>For me, a good opera film captures the mood of the music. Butterfly is probably Puccini's most atmospheric, lush, and dreamy score(although La Fanciulla del West is stiff competition), and Ponnelle's film is appropriately dreamlike. Let's use the marvelous love duet that ends the first act as an example. For me, this duet, along with Liu's death scene from Turandot, represents Puccini at the very height of his musical-dramatic brilliance. The music is rapturous and erotic, delaying the crescendo until the moment becomes almost unbearable. Ponnelle paints this music in dreamlike images of ever-increasing passion. Granted, this film was made in 1974, so some of the more trippy moments might seem a little dated, but if you take that into account, the moment is beautifully filmed, haunting and evocative, just like the score. The image perfectly matches the music...isn't that what opera on film is all about? If this were the only example of this perfect union of sound and vision, then I would be less enthusiastic about the film as a whole, but throughout most of Madama Butterfly, Ponnelle manages that lush, languorous tide of images that matches Puccini's flowing music. <
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>Regarding the sound portion, as I said before, you won't hear Butterfly performed better, that is a guarantee. Mirella Freni IS Cio-Cio-San, the innocence, the passion, the self-delusion, the heartbreak. Oh, and she sings the role to perfection, capturing the character's timidity and strength. Butterfly's entrance is probably my favorite musical entrance in all opera, and hearing Freni's singing, quiet at first and from a distance, gradually building as she and her bridal party make their arrival, is a breathtaking moment, outclassing any staged production I have ever seen. A very young Placido Domingo is in prime voice, and is ideally cast as the rake B.F. Pinkerton, initially cavalier to the point of being cruel, later violently regretful(too little, too late). He does look somewhat risible running in slow motion with his arms flailing about in his handlebar mustache, but overall he is a fine romantic lead. Robert Kerns has a strong and compassionate baritone voice, which matches his character's best qualities, the voice of reason, Pinkerton's disregarded conscience. Having Christa Ludwig in the role of Suzuki might be considered luxury casting, since her character is less prominent, but she makes the most of her time onstage as the matronly confidante to Butterfly, she is definitely at her prime vocally at this point in her career. Von Karajan's conducting is also in its prime, not as slow as it sometimes is, or else I didn't notice it because the slowness matches the languid tempo of much of the music. The sound quality is clear and full-bodied enough that hardly any of the notes are obscured. <
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>Forget the negative reviews. If you love Butterfly, give this a chance. There are flaws, but considering the strengths of the performances and of much of the film, those flaws are easily overlooked.

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Shame,Shame,Shame!!!
How can a respected company like DG can issue a DVD with such a poor film quality?

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Karajan magnificent in unique treatment of familiar tragedy
I completely disagree with some of the reviewers. How easy it is to misunderstand a fine director's intentions! <
>The story of "Butterfly" is one of the most sordid tragedy in all opera repertoire. Think about it. An innocent 15 year old girl to escape poverty, thru a profit-hungry marriage broker, marries an opportunistic and unscrupulous American sea captain who seduces and abandons her.. She is cursed and abandoned by society, robbed of her child and driven to suicide. <
>So what do the reviewers want? Pretty Japanese scenery with Fujijama in the background? <
>The director created a unique film that's atmospheric, surrealistic, colorless to suit this story. The set: a nondescript cottage surrounded by a depressing barren field. Characters are well drawn, even the secondary ones. (eg. the grotesque but frightening Goro or the terrifying Bonzo). <
>It is unfortunate that the 15 year old Cio-Cio San is played by a much older singer which is illusion destroying, but Mirella Freni is superb, it is HER role. <
>Musically this set is absolutely without equal,(perhaps the magical Sinopoli comes near,but that's a CD) but I must emphasize the contribution of Karajan, who is the genius behind it all. I never thought he was a Puccini fan, but obviously he has a special feeling for this work. He takes a dramatic view of the score and almost re-discovers the opera. His ear for detail is uncanny, the love-duet is sensuous with soaring melodic lines, the great aria (Un bel di) rarely sounded more dramatic, full of emotion. It just builds and builds! And the 3rd act is so powerful, it will leave you breathless. You won't forget this film easily. <
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