Madame Butterfly [DVD]

I'm a lover of opera and wondered just how good an opera would be transferred to the movies. Well, I wasn't disappointed in the least when I saw the DVD of "Madame Butterfly" done in 1996 by Martin Scorcese and Frederick Mitterrand. I was just enthralled by this movie, the singers, the orchestra, and of course by Puccini's opera of "Madame Butterfly". I almost was afraid since it was a movie, that it wouldn't have the whole opera, or all singing as an opera really is, but this movie surpassed all my fears and I just thoroughly enjoyed it except for that part when they had that black and white bit while the son is supposed to be dreaming. I didn't care for that part, but the rest of it, A++. I've seen "Madame Butterfly" on stage in a theater and she was always played by a caucasian woman trying to look Japanese and it didn't quite work for me, but this version on film was done by a beautiful oriental young woman named Ying Huang, who wasn't much older than the 15-year-old Butterfly or Cio-Cio-San, as she's properly named. Her voice just sent me, giving me chills of how beautiful her voice truly is. I don't normally watch a movie again right away when I watch them, but with this movie of "Madame Butterfly", I watched it 3 times in one afternoon, one right after the other, just to listen to the beautiful music of Giacomo Puccini and to the beautiful voice of Ying Huang. Richard Troxell playing the part of American Lt. B.F. Pinkerton was done so superbly that him being so handsome added just the right touch for the rogue he was. He just married her, Japanese style, for fun while he was stationed in Nagasaki, never intending to be with her forever while she had married him forever, never to part with him until their deaths. She didn't know he was doing that to her, so when he told her he would return in the spring when the birds made their nests, he didn't mean it and she was innocent of all of it, firmly believing him when he told her thus. When he does return, she's asleep in the bedroom with their son and doesn't hear Sharpless, Pinkerton and Kate come to the house. He doesn't let Suzuki awaken her because he doesn't want to face her because of all the guilt he feels. As he walks through the house, he remembers what took place with him and Butterfly those 3 months that he was with her and he can't stand it to the point he runs away, leaving Kate and Sharpless to tell Suzuki who in turn has to tell Butterfly that Pinkerton had married an American woman and they want Butterfly's son. When Butterfly finally gets up, she sees Sharpless and immediately knows Pinkerton's there or somewhere near. She looks all over for him, but finds him not. She begs Suzuki to tell her and all Suzuki can do is cry. When Butterfly sees that, she knows the worst and knows that Pinkerton's not coming to see her. Then she sees Kate and knows immediately that she's Pinkerton's American wife and now Butterfly realizes the full extent of the pain she feels. Kate asks for the boy and though it will break her heart, Butterfly consents to give him to Pinkerton and Kate. Butterfly had waited for him for 3 years and now he didn't want to see her, so Butterfly does the only thing that she can do and that's to commit hari kiri, because of the loss of face for her. Just after she has plunged the dagger into her heart, she hears Pinkerton calling for her, "Butterfly? Butterfly? Butterfly?" She stands with blood soaking the front of her white ceremonial gown, as Pinkerton runs into the house. He catches her in his arms to kiss her as she dies. This was originally written by John Luther Long in a book form in 1903. David Belasco had written the stage version of it for him and when Giacomo Puccini had seen it, the story just went to his heart that he wrote the music for the opera, with Luigi Illica and Giusepe Giacosa writing the libretto, and it was first performed in 1904 in Milan, Italy.

Martin Scorsese's cinematography is utterly unparralleled in his filming of the beautiful Puccini opera "Madame Butterfly". It is with a reserved caution that I say it surpasses any staged version of the opera I have ever seen! I say that cautiously so as not to offend those die-hard traditionalists, myself having been one. Scorsese transports us to an authentic Japan and his photography captures all of the intricate details and beauty for the setting of one of the worlds most beautiful stories. The film is so real that one is truly moved to tears by the end and emotionally overwhelmed. The mixed cast of both Asian and Western singers makes it even more beliebable. Soprano Ying Huang sings and acts delicately the fragile geisha who will wed the American lieutenant Pinkerton, sung by American Richard Troxell. Both are aptly cast in the film and compliment one another. Ying Huang plays the child-like Butterfly accurately as the composer would have intended. Troxell is handsome, charming and plays well the role of a not so nice character, leading Butterfly to believe he will one day return to Japan and take her back to America. He's so charming, in fact, that at times one feels he may have a change of heart along the way. From the beginning of the film with the torii standing in the Nagasaki harbor through the duration of the film, much in the leased 100 year paper and wood house built for Butterfly, one experiences many visual nuances. Scorsese can even film the softness of a breeze blowing at sundown through the house, captured by flowers moving in the dimming sunlight in a vase. The only fault I can find with the film, and it's considerable enough to detract from the overall experience, is the very unrealistic Bonze flying down from the sky at the end of the wedding ceremony. It looked somewhat foolish, considering the rest was unprecedented. Of the many filmed scenes, one that was effectively done was at the end of the opera, where Scorsese created a bad thunderstorm around the time Butterfly committed hara-kari and just at the time Kate and Sharpless pulled up in a carriage in the pouring rain to have Suzuki push the child out of the house and picked up by the Americans to be returned with his father to the States. Lastly, the cowardly Pinkerton runs into the house hoping to once more see Butterfly, but rather finds her dead on the floor. Scorsese captures the intense awkwardness and ambivalence of this moment that closes the film. In my review, I've talked little about the music or the voices. Puccini's music was sung convincingly by the cast and particularly Ying Huang and Richard Troxell, who both had great acting ability as well. But the true essence of this production was the filming and Scorsese's ability to capture so many delicate moments through the use of cinema. Please do yourself a favor and watch this beautiful opera, but rather on film as an alternate to the stage. Highly highly recommended!