Movie Review: 'Madam Butterfly 3-D' | Movies & TV | Arts ...

By Mastoor Khan Created: March 11, 2012 Last Updated: March 13, 2012

Liping Zhang as Madam Butterfly (Cio-Cio-San), soprano, and James Valenti as Lieutenant Pinkerton, tenor. (RealD Inc.)

Director Julian Napier said that he wanted to bring Puccini?s great work, the tragic life and death of the innocent Madam Butterfly, to a much wider audience, and to those who might previously have regarded opera as out of their reach. Hopefully he will succeed in this aim, as this is a hugely enjoyable cinematic experience.

The film does deliver the frisson of excitement that you get from sitting in London?s Royal Opera House. You feel within your bones that you are watching and listening to the pinnacle of talent, whether you?re an opera buff, or it?s your first foray into the genre.

This is the tale of the beautiful and na?ve Madam Butterfly Cio Cio San, the impoverished daughter of a genteel family from Nagasaki. Life is hard for her, as she has to earn her own living, and when matchmaker Goro introduces to her the rascally Lieutenant Pinkerton, an American sailor, it is love at flrst sight. Pinkerton is charmed by her pretty face and sweetness and pays Goro to arrange the match. All along, he intends to go back to America and get himself a ?real? wife. Pinkerton is called back to America for duty, and he is absent for three years. Poor Madam Butterfly pines for her love, who is unaware that he now has a half Japanese son ?

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The two leads are particularly impressive, and overall convincingly cast. The Japanese costumes are sumptuous and soprano Liping Zhang has just the right blend of sweetness and prettiness as Cio Cio San. If she doesn?t quite pass for a 15-year-old in close up, we can overlook the matter. We hardly ever see Romeo and Juliet played by 13- and 14-year-old actors, after all.

James Valenti is excellent as the cad who marries her under false pretences then abandons her. There is a very funny moment at the end of the show, when they take their bows; he is greeted by a chorus of boos from the theatre audience.

There are many ways in which cinema enhances the experience. The close-ups of course help to emphasise the drama at key points, and the 3-D really does draw you in even deeper.

Mastoor Khan is a freelance writer living in London.

Source: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/arts-entertainment/movie-review-madam-butterfly-3-d-203457.html

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