Puccini: Madama Butterfly

The first performance of Butterfly was a failure at its premiere at La Scala in 1904, even though it had Storchio as Butterfly,Toscanni's lover at the time. The youthful Zenatello as Pinkerton and De Luca as Sharpless. A dream cast. The problem was that Butterfly was devided into two long acts. Also, many people in Milan wanted Puccini to fail. He was not their favourite composer and getting too big for his pants they thought. When the curtain finally fell there was total silence. Toscanni had predicted such a failure when he saw the score at Storchio's home. He had left La Scala by this time because the audience were too noisy. Puccini withdrew the opera, changed parts of the opera and divided the opera into three acts. Three months later Butterfly was presented at Brescia,between Milan and Turin. Butterfly was Salomea Kruszeinicka with a deeper voice. The other principal singers and conductor were the same. The success the opera received was due to the changes and a more open minded audience. Puccini fiddled with the opera until 1906, when Butterfly had its premiere at the Paris opera-Comique. Albert Carre, director of the opera Comique wanted changes to suit his bourgeois audience. This 1906 version is the one we hear today. Madama Butterfly was converted from a Japanese tragedy, to a Melodrama. In the original version of 1904,from the moment the child is born, he is the reason for Butterfly's existence,the reason for her independence. In the final scene, after she bids farewell to the child, she wilfully commits suicide as befits the dignity of the daughter of a Samurai. Only by her death can Butterfly give her child to the Pinkerton's , because the maternal bond is too strong. This is a part of her destiny, the path she has followed and what has been delivered to her. She was not a victim as she became in the 1906 version. But this 1906 version as well as the 1904 version conforms to Puccini's wish" I shall make you weep" The 1904 La Scala Version can be found on Vox classics, conductor, Rosekrans with the Hungarian State opera house orchestra. The Butterfly is Maria Spacagna. You can programme the Brescia and 1906 Paris version to play as well from these 4 CD's.Also, included is the original texts. You might be interested in hearing the original 1904 singers, Storchio, Zenatello and De Luca,also Kruszeinicka on CD. EMI Classics Vol 1,1878-1914,La Scala edition. Also, EMI, Les introuvables du chant Verdien. (Rarities of Verdi Singers). I believe it is wise to know your history, so you can understand the present. The current Butterfly is produced at the Sferisterio opera Festival Macerata This open air stadium was opened in 1829 as a home for Italian handball game, but used as a music venue since the 1920's. Pier Luigi Pizzi is the Stage Director,set and Costume designer. The production is traditional with its pretty little Japanese House, blossom covered cherry tree and silk kimonos. Many of Pinkertons less likeable characteristics are shown. His thoughtless juggling of the statues of Buddha, and his doling out dollar bills to show money can buy you love. The Fondazione Orchestra Regionala delle marche is conducted by Daniele Callegari. The music is swift and captures the emotion and sadness in this piece. Bravo. One of Italy's favourite Butterfly's is singing the part, Raffaella Angeletti, who has deep chest notes, more like a Kruszelinicka ,then a Storchio. She captures the emotional impulse. My stiff upper lip dropped for a while, I was almost in tears at the end.Puccini, you got me. Suzuki is Annunziata Vestri the mezzo, who is marvellous. Sharpless is Pisapia. Strong voice. The rest of the cast is equally fine. I think the reason why this opera succeeds, is because the orchestra, director and much of the cast are Italian. If you like Italian opera and Puccini, this is a must for your Blu Ray collection.This review is by a person who also likes Modern productions.This opera is traditionally staged. Worldwide, filmed in HD.

I realize this was an open-air production of Madama Butterfly. However, I feel that the scenery could have been better. Being an outdoor production was no excuse for the awful costumes. Madama Butterfly looked more like a vampire than a geisha.

Very sad production. The singers and orchestra should sweep one into the production. Instead this pushes one away. The singing here is horrid. The orchestra with the singers should bring out deep emotions in the viewer / listener. This is so very bad I am sending it back to Amazon and they can keep it. I am truly that Amazon would even sell it.

Raffaella Angeletti (Cio Cio San) is a very sensitive and moving singer. The regie is great, it recreates very well the atmosphere of sorrow.

I liked very little about this opera performance and the sets were not in keeping with the beauty of this work. Puccini would be apalled.

I would have paid very gladly to go see this for the original performance, and even bought this blu ray subsequently, had I been seated, say, 15 rows away from the stage and the orchestra. I have nothing to complain about the quality of the recording, its crystal clear resolution and the performance from the players. Very good sets, the costumes though tacky, are passable and the ambiance created on stage is lovely. Introduction of the ballet before last scene was actually quite pleasant and innovative. What spoils this production is the clarity of the blu ray!!!! This medium is for people to enjoy in their living rooms with close ups unimaginable in the hall, and the freedom to see and listen to the disc or parts of it repeatedly. It is a pure visual experience which has to be chosen with some sensitivity to its viewing public as well as the visual experience itself. Otherwise, a well recorded CD would do the job superbly. Angeletti is certainly qualified and gives a mature display of her talents, but unfortunately in this blu ray, she looks closer to 50 than 15. That itself is a put-off...thoroughly unconvincing to say the least to a blu ray viewer. She would be and will be magnificent on the stage any day, even today to those sitting beyond 15 rows in the theater. But don't 'shoot' her for close-ups please. All the others do their job quite very well, but the above factor by itself makes one want to switch off the screen and listen to the performance rather than view it. The make-up is shoddy to say the least, and makes the girls look as though the talcum-powder ran out midway through the process. A GOOD PERFORMANCE DOTH NOT A GOOD BLU-RAY MAKE, is my verdict on this. I would any day go back to the Freni/Domingo/Karajan or the Ling Huang/Troxel movie (which is visually pleasing indeed), whenever I wish to see this.

Rating the delivery, not the product: Blu-Ray arrived quickly and intact.

Someone needs to fix this listing. The BluRay listing is not the same production or cast of the DVD version that's listed. I bought the BluRay---the cover matches but I thought that was just a wrong image---it's a completely different production.

This review is for the BluRay disc of the Sferisterio Opera Festival headed by Raffaella Angeletti. I have a reasonable collection of opera on DVD/BluRay and I've been looking for some time to add Madama Butterfly to the collection. It took me a while to decide on a production and I'm very pleased that I chose this one. It is certainly true, as another reviewer states, that close ups of Raffaella Angeletti destroy the illusion of her being a 15 year old girl but really, where would you find a 15 year old girl who could sing with the passion and strength of La Angeletti? On this occasion the viewer has to accept that the "willing suspension of disbelief" has been stretched to the limit; accept that, embrace it and enjoy the performance. There is much to appreciate about this production. It is a very traditional production with period dress and a traditional Japanese house centre stage. An interesting addition is a ballet performance after The Humming Chorus which depicts the reunion CioCio yearns for. The BluRay production is excellent, colours crisp and clean with excellent audio.

Diese Aufführung der Madama Butterfly ist eine Inszenierung der Opernfestspiele des Sferisterio Festival in Macerata im Jahre 2009. Raffaella Angeletti ist eine wunderschöne Cio-Cio-San, welche stimmlich der Rolle gerecht wird. Ob sie eine der besten Butterfly's unserer Zeit ist, bleibt noch abzuwarten. Die anderen Sänger, allen voran Massimiliano Pisapia sind gut, sie singen hervorragend. Das Bühnenbild und die Kostüme sind traditionell, was bestimmt den Geschmack des breiten Opernpublikums entspricht. Alles in allem kann man sagen, das das eine sehr gute Aufführung und auch Aufzeichnung eines der berührendsten Werke der Opernliteratur ist. Extras gibt es leider keine, Schade.

Enfin une Madama Butterfly en Blu ray digne de ce chef-d'oeuvre de Puccini ! En effet la scénographie de Luigi Pizzi, décidemment un grand metteur en scène, s'appuie sur un décor simple et beau qui rappelle les estampes du grand Hokusai. Ce peinte japonais qui aimait s'appeler « le fou de peinture » et qui influença, entre autres, Vincent Van Gogh. Décor aux couleurs pastelles s'appuyant sur une gamme de gris, que nous retrouvons dans les costumes aux voiles comme des ailes transparentes. Une scène symbolise la réelle beauté de cette conception : la procession spectrale de figures voilées qui accompagnent le choeur à bouches fermées de la fin du 2ème acte. Une vraie poésie se dégage de ce drame. L'orchestre sans atteindre la richesse de celui du Met, dans la vision du metteur en scène Anthony Minghella, nous offre une vision assez fine de la partition magique de Puccini. Les chanteurs : Cet opéra repose sur la force d'incarnation de Butterfly. Raffaella Angeletti campe une Butterfly très émouvante, sachant faire évoluer son personnage, de la jeune et naïve mariée du début, à l'héroïne tragique de la fin de l'ouvrage. Annunziata Vestri est une Suzuki tendre et dévouée. Son duo des fleurs avec Butterfly est particulièrement réussi. Sgura est un Sharpless très convainquant. Pisapia n'a pas le physique du rôle, en a-t-il la voix ?... Qualités techniques : son et images excellents En résumé une très belle Butterfly. Plaisir des yeux et des oreilles. Cela devient rare.

ACHTUNG: Bei der Blu-ray handelt es sich um die Aufführung vom Sferisterio Opera Festival, Macerata, 2010! Die Kommentare/Informationen beziehen sich aber auf die DVD-Version der MET! Bei der Blu-ray Aufnahme handelt es sich um eine (sehr) klassische Interpretation/Inszenierung. Orchester und Sänger sind sehr gut. Die Inszenierung ist mir zu klassich ohne überraschendes Momentum. Deshalb 4 Sterne Wegen der Irrführung/falschen Verknüpfung mit einer anderen DVD total nur 2 Sterne!

Of all the operas Madame Butterfly must surely rank as one of the most popular and best known of all. Yet despite this fact we have had to wait until now for a production in high definition. Look through the catalogue and you will be spoilt for choice in respect of Tosca's, Boehme's and similarly popular operas by Verdi and Mozart. For some bizarre reason the catalogue looks a little bare in respect of poor old Butterfly. Absolutely nothing in high definition and most of the highly respected classic performances are looking a little old in the tooth and tired in respect of modern expectations of audio and visual quality. Until now! I have been waiting patiently for the last couple of years for a new Blu-ray production to appear. Raffaella Angeletti has built up quite a reputation for her performance as Cio-Cio San in Madame Butterfly over the last 13 years. This live performance was filmed at the open air stadium at Sferisterio di Macerata and this provides an extremely wide stage albeit that it is virtually static staging. All the action takes place outside Butterfly's house. Visually, the set is quite attractive with a blossom tree and wooden decking which gives a reasonably convincing oriental feel to the set. Let me say at the outset that there is much to enjoy with this production. Vocally it is superb - up there with the best! However, I do have the odd gripe with the production and I have seen many other versions which I have found to be more emotionally charged. Perhaps part of the problem is that facially Angeletti does not look like a very young Japanese bride. Every time I looked at Cio-Cio San I couldn't help seeing a European lady in her 30's rather than the oriental teenage bride. Now I realise the practical difficulties in finding a leading operatic soprano who fits the required description but as far as I can recall this was less of a problem with the wonderful Mirella Freni. However, vocally and in terms of her acting ability, Angeletti shines. Butterfly's 27 month old child is another problem. The child looks twice as old and there is not the slightest trace of oriental blood. Of course this is a problem that bedevils all productions of this opera and age wise it is virtually insolvable. Perhaps the neatest solution was provided by the excellent Anthony Minghella production at the ENO a few years ago. Puppets controlled by actors were used to very good effect! The Introduction to the final act was new to me - a 7 minute ballet sequence which purports to be Butterfly's dream of Pinkerton's return. I am a little undecided as to its effectiveness but perhaps it would have been more convincing if the male dancer had a haircut which was more appropriate to the naval uniform that he was wearing! Ordinarily, my emotional strings would have been pulled several times during this Opera but on this occasion I had to wait for the gorgeous arias in the third act. However, it was worth the wait and the respective performances of Angeletti, Pisapia and Sgura are magnificent and especially so in respect of Sgura's Sharpless - who was convincing throughout the Opera. In recent years Pinkerton is often portrayed in less than favourable terms and this production is no exception. Aside from his obvious moral cowardice in Act 3 his insensitivities are noticeable right from the outset. This production also benefits from a very realistic portrayal of the character of Kate Pinkerton as it slowly dawns upon her that her husband's character is deeply flawed. Finally, brief comment about the production and technical qualities of the Blu-ray dvd. The video quality is very good with a sharp picture as you would expect from a modern Blu-ray. The colours are fairly muted and aside from the white costumes of Pinkerton and Butterfly most of the other colours are a little drab. This is not meant as a criticism, just an observation. The DTS 5.1 surround sound is excellent but I was less happy with the PCM 2.0 stereo which lacked body and betrayed the origin of an open air event with less than perfect acoustics. I was disappointed with the old fashioned Menu which failed to follow the action of the opera. At best it would tell you when you moved into another act but not from one aria to another. In this day and age it should be so simple to provide customers with a decent picture within picture or at the very least provide a menu which moves with the performance. `Unitel Classica' - time to wake up! There are no extras with this disc and the accompanying booklet is a little sparse on detail. I really wanted to give a 5 star rating for this new production in high definition. However, for reasons stated the end product only deserves 4 stars but this is not really the fault of the performers. In conclusion this is a very fine production but it could have been even better. The truth of the matter is that if you want decent video and sound then there is no other competition! This is the leader in the clubhouse until something better arrives on Blu-ray.