| PRODUCT DETAILS | | Giacomo Puccini - Madama Butterfly / Kaibaivanska, Antinori, Jankovic, Saccomani, Ferrara (Arena di Verona) |  | |
Giacomo Puccini - Madama Butterfly / Kaibaivanska, Antinori, Jankovic, Saccomani, Ferrara (Arena di Verona)
Undoubtedly one of the world's most popular operas, recorded from the open-air Arena di Verona. Stars Raina Kabaivanska in the title role, with Nazzareno Antinori as Pinkerton and Lorenzo Saccomani as Sharpless. Conducted by Maurizo Arena. Color, 144 minutes.Subtitled in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian.
Manufacturer: Kultur Video
Price Range: $15.61 - $29.99
 Giacomo Puccini - Madama Butterfly / Kaibaivanska, Antinori, Jankovic, Saccomani, Ferrara (Arena di Verona)
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| User Reviews |  | Snobs strut their stuff
rating: 3
It is the late 1800's. An American naval captain, Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton (Nazzareno Antinori) is stationed in Japan. As is tradition he has a girl in every port. That is except Japan. So he is matched up with a poverty stricken teen Cio-Cio-San, known as Butterfly (Raina Kabaivanska.) Butterfly dumps her old religion (which infuriates her relatives) and clings to Pinkerton. Naturally the day will come when Pinkerton will need a proper American wife. So how does Cio-Cio react? (Puccini music at his best). The story is based on John Luther Long's novella about the relationship between an American navel officer and a former geisha.
This is one of Giacomo Puccini's most popular operas. This was a taken from John Luther Long's novella about the relationship between an American navel officer and a former geisha.
I normally appreciate the subtle differences in different presentations of this story. However this particular one (in Verona in 1983) grated on me as the characters were played by stuffy snobs that mostly walked through the story.
However the scenery was excellent and they had the space to do more with props. Also the music was up to par. I also felt that I was sitting in then outdoor audience.
Even though I know the story it was still good to have fairly accurate subtitles that kept up with the action.
Bulgaria born Raina Kabaivanska has plaid parts in several made for TV operas.
Puccini - Madama Butterfly Starring: Mirella Freni, Plácido Domingo
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a professional Butterfly
rating: 4
This 1983 open-air performance is a thoroughly professional, traditionally staged Madama Butterfly likely to please most admirers of this opera. Tenor Nazzareno Antinori is a real surprise - he does some wonderful singing, especially in the third Act. His 'Addio, fiorito asil' is quite something! Beautiful phrasing and a confident, melting expressiveness once he gets warmed up. Kaibaivanska not so much - I don't understand some opera fans' devotedness to this singer. And not only fans, she's a singer greatly respected by her colleagues around the world. I've seen her Tosca and Butterfly. She gets the job done, explicitly at times, but her singing lacks character. Plenty of rubenesque tone, not a lot of color; yet, when she turns it on, the colors she creates with her singing can be captivating. Her singing is inconsistent - one moment quite beautiful, the next pretty boring. There are occasional intonation problems in the top notes. It is hard, however, to fault her Butterfly, at least in this recorded performance, but for a peculiar wooden quality to her singing at times, overtly careful, technically assured, but somewhat colorless. Maurizio Arena's conducting is staid and predictable, but not without merit. The Verona orchestra responds lithely, always conscious of the actors on stage, to Arena's credit. The staging is what we've seen before, middle-of-the-road agreeable but nothing defining. Sound is excellent throughout, thanks I'm sure in large part to Brian Large's expert direction of a film project which never fails to impress with its purposefulness. I agree with the reviews remarking on the excellent closeup shots - the wonders of the video age! Scotto's Butterfly breaks your heart, and Price had tremendous vocal reserves to endow her version with immortality - Raina Kaibaivanska falls short on both counts, but gives a reliable performance overall of a notoriously vocally dangerous role. The physical demands alone of the role caused L. Price to quit it early on. If a truly fine filmed version of Butterfly exists, I havent found it. Still, lovers of Puccini's enduring masterpiece will find some good moments to champion in this DVD version. Tenor Nazzareno Antinori and director Brian Large commit impeccable work and deserve kudos. Subtitles included.
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Quanto cielo!
rating: 4
Criticisms about this "Butterfly" are foolisheness.What a marvellous night when all the vocal performers was nothing less than shinning.Antinori,a very diligent singer here,just watching all conductor's markings,at no time losing sight of the character's poetry and spontaneity.His performance is a overpowering one.Saccomani sings an exemplary Sharpless as well.To my personal taste,Jankovic has a stiff voice but was a very proper Suzuki on this Dvd.Raina Kabaivanska!(let me warn you;she's tall,like a basketball player geisha)I was completely fixed on,from her entrance on "Quanto cielo!"(if you have a fine TV,just watch Antinori's drop eyes in this moment),then audience to get enthusiastic about her sweetness and brightness top notes above all female chorus."Bimba dagli occhi" was a touching experience even to me,always suspicious on Puccini's musical indulgences.Act II,one more break in "Scuota quela fronda?",'cause Raina just holds so passionated "He's returned and he loves me!",that people on Verona really go to mad.Besides,she proves herself a great actress on final scene.The only problem about that night was mistakes and tuneless horns,harps,too much noisy percussion,...What about shades,dynamics,...?I would like that players was been a bit more scrupulous all in all.Well...That's alive,anyway.
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Butterfly fallida
rating: 2
TodavÃa no he encontrado una versión de Butterfly que me resulte satisfactoria. Al adquirir ésta esperaba, por las estrellas que lucÃa, que pudiera ser la versión que hace falta. Sin embargo, con excepción del bellÃsimo jardÃn japonés que logra ambientar plenamente la acción, el resto de ella es muy insatisfactorio. El sonido es deficiente, dependiendo de la posición de los micrófonos ambientales a veces las voces se pierden.Por otra parte, en general, también resulta demasiado metálico. El desempeño de Kabaivanska, altamente profesional, es también muy inadecuado. Se supone que Butterfly tiene 15 años y K. representa tres veces más. Todos los esfuerzos del maquillador resultan insuficientes para ocultar su excesiva madurez. Tampoco la acompaña el fÃsico por lo alta y maciza que resulta para representar una adolecente japonesa. Su emisión, trabajada con mucha técnica, tampoco es concordante con la edad de la protagonista. Sus desplazamientos por el bello escenario, por todas las inadecuaciones ya anotadas,a pesar de sus esfuerzos, parecen más un remedo de una geisha. En todo caso, hay que destacar su dominio de escena y su seguridad para coordinarse con el director. En este último aspecto, el desempeño del tenor y el barÃtono resultan muy pobres, preocupándose tanto de lograrlo que se olvidan que la ópera también requiere actuación. La voz de Antinori, con un timbre demasiado metálico en los agudos, también resulta insuficiente para el papel, especialmente cuando debe enfrentar el registro medio y bajo. La dirección de Arena, quizá por el requerimiento de un conjunto demasiado numeroso por tratarse de una presentación en espacio abierto, pasa por momentos en que pareciera no lograr una adecuada concertación. En definitiva, los amantes de Madama Butterfly debemos seguir esperando una versión satisfactoria en DVD.
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Una version de gran belleza
rating: 4
Esta es una muy bella version de la opera de Puccini. Primero por la bella puesta en escena que plantea la Arena de Verona, con ese jardin natural omnipresente. Luego, por la grandisima creacion (en lo vocal y en lo fisico) que hace del papel principal RAINA KABAIVANSKA, de vision obligada. Ademas aparece muy bien secundada por JANKOVIC (Suzuki) y FERRARA (Sharpless), que estan muy interesantes en sus personajes, y por el mas discreto, aunque suficiente, ANTINORI (B.F. Pinkerton) La orquesta y el coro responden a gran nivel, y solo un cierto sonido enlatado (provocado seguramente por el hecho de que el espectáculo sea en un gran recinto al aire libre) parece ser e unico punto discutible de este dvd. Muy recomendable desde cualquier punto de vista.
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Giacomo Puccini - Madama Butterfly / Kaibaivanska, Antinori, Jankovic, Saccomani, Ferrara (Arena di Verona)
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