Art House & International
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Madame Butterfly
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List Price: $21.96
Our Price: $6.80
You Save: $15.16 (69%)
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Product Details
- Starring: Ying Huang, Richard Troxell, Ning Liang, Richard Cowan, Jing Ma Fan
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- Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
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- Binding: VHS Tape
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- Director: Frédéric Mitterrand
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- EAN: 9786304420652
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- Format: Classical, Color, Subtitled, NTSC
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- ISBN: 630442065X
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- Label: Sony Pictures
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- Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
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- Number of Items: 1
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- Product Group: Video
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- Publisher: Sony Pictures
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- Release Date: 1997-04-22
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- Studio: Sony Pictures
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- Title: Madame Butterfly
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- UPC: 043396199934
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Avg Customer Rating: 
Product Description: Like the finest of film scores with its fluid beauty and succession of intensely romantic tunes, Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly has a surprisingly cinematic feel. In 1995 director Frederic Mitterand exploited this quality of the story, exposing a young woman's disillusionment against a backdrop of cultural chasms. Shot on location, with Tunisia doubling convincingly as a turn-of-the-century Nagasaki, this Butterfly shines with fragile beauty. The house becomes a brilliantly used set, at once airy and full of the scent of flowers and at the same time a cage for the trapped woman. Archive footage of bygone Nagasaki is used skillfully to underline the distance between the 15-year-old bride and Pinkerton. Purists may prefer a more traditionally robust, stage-bound Butterfly, but you'd be hard-pressed to find a more visually heartbreaking interpretation. Chinese soprano Ying Huang doesn't rock the rafters with her vocal power; hers is a tender, delicately observed performance. Tenor Richard Troxell's self-seeking Pinkerton is well sung. Overall, this is a haunting cinematic treatment of an enduringly popular opera. --Piers Ford
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Customer Reviews
Madame Butterfly
I actually bought this for my Mother's 77th birthday (at her request). She says she LOVES it!! I know that she'd rate it five stars. I'm happy that she's happy.
Thank you.
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Butterfly, The Movie
I've seen Butterfly at San Francisco, Lyric Opera of Chicago and at numerous other venues, so it's an opera whose nuances I think I know pretty well. I cannot imagine any performance that I've ever seen of any opera that didn't have something I wished had been done differently, but picking apart this presentation really is difficult. OK, the 'floating relatives' were a little too Hollywood, but the close-ups, setting, costumes, acting and, yes, singing were truly sublime. I have several other performances on both CD and DVD, but in all fairness, none of them take you as deeply into the love affair between Butterfly & Pinkerton as this one does. Really, the only thing I've seen lately that approaches the intimacy of such a performance is the Met broadcasts live in theatres. If you only buy one Butterfly DVD, make it this one. In fact, I'd almost say if you've never been to an opera before, start here. It's really that good.
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Beautiful story, great film !
Beautiful story. The performance is excellent. Don't miss this classic dramatic opera presented as a film. Bravo !!
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my favorite "beginners" opera
This delightful DVD has helped me win over a few opera converts. I found it to be visually pleasing and simplistic which in my opinion is a plus. Also Huang brings authenticity to a role so commonly filed with...less believable leads...Not to mention her voice! A must for those new to the opera community, or those wishing to introduce it to others.
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Outstanding production.
Asin BOOOOF39MA6.
This is an outstanding video. To take excellent singers from Asia and America made sense in this opera .Ying Huang was very convincing as Butterfly, she is a very sensitive singer and actress as well as Richard Troxell as Pinkerton especially the transformation of his character from the first act and the third. The rest of the cast was excellent, very beautiful scenery and very good sound..
I found some of the Japanese's scenes from the beginning of the century in the opening of the third act with the intermezzo music to be gorgeous .I am very glad to have selected this DVD among all selections that I had.
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