MADAME BUTTERFLY
A film review by Ben Hoffman
Copyright 1997 Ben Hoffman
Puccini's opera has never had a more beautiful, more loving, more touching production than Martin Scorsese's presentation, directed by Frederic Mitterand.
It is the late 1800s when the tall, handsome American, Captain Pinkerton (Richard Troxell), arrives in Japan on the warship, the Abraham Lincoln. He rents a house in Nagasaki for 999 years as it cannot be sold. However, as he remarks to the American consul, Sharpless (Richard Cowan), the lease can be broken at any time. This comes to mind when Goro (Jing-Ma Fan), a matchmaker, arranges a marriage between Cio-Cio-San and Pinkerton. Apparently, marriages can as easily be broken. In the end we see that Pinkerton thought of his lovely bride as if she were a delightful toy.
The lovely Chinese actress-singer, Ying Huang, brings to the screen all the hope and heartache that is experienced by Cio-Cio-San, Ying's every emotion, every smile, every movement of her face signals her feelings. It is we, the audience, who are so moved because we know that she will be enduring great disappointment as her hopes are dashed when Pinkerton, after 3 years back in the States, returns to Japan with his American wife . . . while I had all I could do to gulp and keep back my tears even though I have heard the opera many times.
This Madame Butterfly is a great movie. Every character, including the maid, Suzuki (Ning Liang), is perfect. All are known in the world of opera for their fine voices. Unlike in most operas I have seen on the stage, these singers can also act up a storm . . . and they do.
Ying Huand is a graduate of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and has performed in many cities of the world. Richard Troxell, too, is world renowned, as are Ning Liang and Richard Cowan.
Directed by Frederic Mitterand
Sung in Italian. English subtitles.
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Ben Hoffman
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