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Madama Butterfly (TV)

7.3

21

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Original title

Madama Butterfly

Year

1975

Running time

146 min.

Country

Germany - East Germany (GDR)

Director

Jean-Pierre Ponnelle

Screenwriter

Jean-Louis Martinoty, Giuseppe Giacosa, Luigi Illica. Play: David Belasco

Cast

Music

Herbert von Karajan, Giacomo Puccini

Cinematography

Wolfgang Treu, Ernst Wild

Producer

UNITEL, ZDF, Decca Records

Genre

Drama. Romance. Musical | Melodrama. Opera

Synopsis

Of all Puccini's major operas, the intimate tragedy of Madama Butterfly is least in need of elaborate staging and might therefore benefit most from the close scrutiny of film. The story is domestic, the setting Spartan, the incidental characters kept to a minimum. This 1974 version, however, demonstrates that Butterfly still needs a healthy injection of proscenium arch melodrama. Director Jean-Pierre Ponelle's production strives for realism but remains unfortunately studio-bound, having neither the benefit of location filming nor the heightened reality of an opera stage. The exterior is a perpetually fog-shrouded heath of indeterminate locale; the interior is cramped and unadorned. The setting is just too prosaic to contain the epic emotions of grand opera.

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User history

Madama Butterfly (TV)

1975

Jean-Pierre Ponnelle

7.3

(21)