Customer Reviews

Unmissable Version Of a Wonderful Opera - By: E. A. Redfearn, 02 Sep 2007
Its not surprising that Madam Butterfly has remained to this day one of the most popular operasin the Operatic Repertoire. For the music & the story is timeless. It is very emotive, full of love & tenderness, & also very tragic. This version succeeds admirablyin more ways than one. Rather than being stagebound, it is filmed on location (in Tunisia of all places!) & does manage to convey to the viewer the feeling of beingin Japan with its wonderful sets, & location shots of the sea & the surrounding landscape to give this production that cinematic feel which works wonderfully well.

The singing by both tenor & sopranoin the lead roles is a delight. Mind you, I have been spoiled by the wonderful Pavarotti/Freni version whichin any case would be difficult to surpass, but I was pleased by the extremely good quality of this production. There is also a short "Making Of...." which is very interesting as there is an interview with the Chinese Soprano Ying Huang & also there are some nice location shots of the sets.

My only criticism however, is that during the famous scene of the Humming Chorus, black & white footage of old Japan did spoil it a little for me, but that was a minor thing though. Some viewers may not mind this insertion, but I am not so sure it worked.

Still, a great production, & I am sure many fans of this beautiful opera will enjoy this anyway. And yes, I agree with many other reviewers, keep plenty of tissues handy, it is a real tear jerker.

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Get ready for some serious tears! - By: S. Williams, 10 Jul 2007
Whether you like it or not, you will bein tears with this film. Fantastic story, wonderful music, magic scenery, great Opera Singers/Actors! You cannot go wrong with this film whether you like Opera or not.

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BRAVO !!! a standing ovation - By: Bernard M. Abel, 17 Feb 2007
WAOH . guys, if you get that DVD, you better get the pack of paper tissues that goes with , as you will end up with wet eyes I can assure you that

. This is by far the MOST outstanding performance of Madame Butterfly i ve seen, either on stage or on screen .

Ok, i admit, I m an opera old timer, but this version of Puccini masterpiece is just outstanding .

go & get it .. it s a must have if you re an opera fan or if you want to discover what Opera is all about .
great music + tons of emotions + magical voices.
and by all mean , on this one, let your feelings go . Even adults can cry & have emotions.. & there s nothing wrong with that..

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Wonderful except... - By: J. turunen, 13 Sep 2006
This is a beautiful film of one of the best loved Operas by Puccini.
The cast is excellent throughout & it makes a great change to see a singerin the leading role who actually looks the part.
The film looks beautiful even if there are some minor mistakesin the design of the set (on the whole accurate) such as the graveyard having stones very unlike any Japanese ones I have seenin Japan as well as the sotoba wooden memorials looking not quite authentic. At least the kimono etc are authentic on the whole like on most other productions of this opera (ENO's productionin London comes to mind where the kimono sleeves were very wrong...more chinese than Japanese). These are very small issues but can irritate the viewer as it would have been easy to make things look authentic even if it was shotin Morocco & notin Nagasaki.
My one real complaint liesin the lack of the several languagesin subtitles[...]. I bought this here because of the price as a gift for my mother who is finnish. Yet there are only four languages subtitles available on this disc. Curiously I had previously bought this DVD [...] & it does have finnish subtitles. Because of this my mother was unable to fully enjoy this marvellous DVD![...]

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Sublime - By: , 19 Apr 2005
This is truly one of the best opera films ever made. Puccini could have written it for the screen! The characters are real & believable. The singing is sublime & the cinematography complements the wonderful score.

Butterfly is vulnerable, Pinkerton is self-absorbed, the marriage broker is evil & the mixed Asian/Caucasian cast works perfectly. Surround sound transforms viewing into a highly emotional experience.

Buy it now - get a large box of tissues & prepare to have a truly emotional expereience