Madama Butterfly

This stand out filmed opera was released in the US with an added English narrator who talks at length, at first setting the stage for the story,then periodically intruding during the course of the opera to explain what is going on, occasionally speaking over the singing, as an alternative to subtitling all of the lyrics which could have been distracting. While this strategy allows the listener to bask in the gorgeous music, it can be annoying.But it kind of fits the authentically recreated Oriental settings and costumes as the Japanese cinema long had a tradition of off screen commentators, the Benshi. Director Carmine Gallone was a veteran of filmed classical music performance and brought his mastery from years of experience to this crowning achievement.The opera is beautifully sung,orchestrated and recorded.The mise en scene is striking and the Technicolor lensing by Claude Renoir is breathtaking.And best of all, the coproduction allows all the Asian roles to be played by Asian actors (,while the singing is dubbed in by Italians) so the embarrassment of watching white performers doing yellow face is completely avoided.

This is one of the most beautiful films ever made of an opera. Everyone knows the story of Cio Cio San, the Japanese geisha who braves social rejection to marry American naval officer B. F. Pinkerton, only to be abandoned and rejected by him. After he returns with his "real" American wife to claim the child, the devastated girl chooses suicide to save her honor. Giacomo Puccini's score is always moving, but this production really looks right and shines beautifully especially when seen in an original IB Technicolor print. I remember first seeing it as a teenager and being turned on to opera as a result. Cio Cio San looks thoroughly convincing as played by Kaoru Yachigusa. Her singing is dubbed by Orietta Moscucci. Pinkerton is played by Nicola Filacuridi and sung by Giovanni Campora. The chorus and orchestra of the Rome Opera are led by Oliviero de Fabritiis. It is a version of the opera that should be much more widely seen today. I believe the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley, California owns a 35mm print, perhaps the only copy in America.

This film is a rare gem. It deserves to be reissued and be made more readily available on DVD. The filming is beautifully done, with soft colourings and stylised settings that while never offending the purists, take nothing away from the familiar story. The casting seems almost ideal with the Cio Cio San, a diminutive and beautiful Japanese actress capably lip syncing to a pre-recorded soundtrack recorded in Italy. The rest of the cast also seem ideally cast and they quickly elicit all the emotions out of the well known story as if for the first time...no matter how many times you have seen the opera previously. Puccini's score has been somewhat cut and while this is a great pity, the film still stands as one of the most beautiful opera presentations ever presented on film. Like a previous commentator, it was this film that made an opera fan of me when I was only five years old. I would love to own a copy.

I saw this movie in Honolulu in 1956. What sets it apart from all other versions is that the heroine was sang and played by a Japanese artist (rather than the clownish effect caused by a caucasion artist being disguised as oriental ) and the magnificent scenery...it was shot on location in Japan. The lead male singer, Filacuridi, and supporting cast, delivered a superb presentation. Another reviewer stated; "...no Japanese believes it is true..."...well, most great operas were based on myth and fantasy, as witnessed by Wagner's, The Ring, in my opinion, the greatest of them all.

Neither movie nor opera is this. This is just a film explaining about a queer story in Japan, which was dreamed out for an opera by a foreigner but no Japanese thinks is true. Kaoru Yachigusa, playing a part of Madame Butterfly, is very pretty and Japanese-like. She may be the only profit you can get from this poor film.