Madame Butterfly [Widescreen]

Adapted from Giacomo Puccini’s opera “Madame Butterfly” with libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica. This classic opera set in 1904 on the outskirts of Nagasaki, tells the tragic story of Cio-Cio-San (Ying Huang), a 15 year-old Japanese girl who falls in love with an American sailor named Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton (Richard Troxell). Butterfly (Pinkerton’s name for Cio-Cio-San), blinded by passion marries Pinkerton, against her family’s wishes. However, Pinkerton’s intentions turn out to be not so honourable, returning to America without Butterfly, but promising he will be back soon. Butterfly is left heart-broken but always hopeful of his return. Three long years pass by before Pinkerton, after learning that Butterfly had given birth to a son fathered by him just before his return to America, decides to make the trip back to Japan. Only this time he has a wife in tow and the sole intention of taking his child back to America leaving Butterfly entirely alone. What follows is a most tragic and heart-breaking climax. Seeing opera presented in film as opposed to on stage has quite a powerful effect. Film through its cinematography (Phillipe Welt) opens up the boundaries of scope of outside landscapes and lush settings enhancing the period of costume, culture, mood and the beautiful music of Puccini and allowing a natural flow to the story. Superb performances by the leading singers with a great support performance by Ning Liang (Suzuki), Richard Cowen (Sharpless), Jing Ma Fan, Christopheren Nomura, Constance Hauman, Yo Kusakabe, Kamel Touati, Miki-Lou Pinard. Featuring the Orchestre de Paris and the Choeurs de Radio France with musical direction by James Conlon and artistic direction by Michel Glotz and Daniel Zalay.