Puccini: Madama Butterfly
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Composer: Giacomo PucciniConductor: Giuseppe Sinopoli
Orchestra: Philharmonia Orchestra
Performer: Mirella Freni
Performer: José Carreras
Performer: Teresa Berganza
Performer: Juan Pons
Performer: Anthony Laciura
Performer: Kurt Rydl
Performer: Marianne Rorholm
Edition: Music CD
Format: Box set
CD Release Date: 1989-09-12
Music Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
- Madama Butterfly: Act One: (Introduzione) 'E soffito e pareti'
- Madama Butterfly: Act One: 'Sorride Vostro Onore?'
- Madama Butterfly: Act One: 'Dovunque al mondo lo Yankee vagabondo'
- Madama Butterfly: Act One: 'Ed e bella la sposa?'
- Madama Butterfly: Act One: 'Amore o grillo, dir non saprei'
- Madama Butterfly: Act One: 'Ecco! Son giunte al sommo del pendio'
- Madama Butterfly: Act One: 'Gran ventura' - 'Riverenza' - 'E un po' dura la scalata?'
- Madama Butterfly: Act One: 'L'Imperial commissario'
- Madama Butterfly: Act One: 'Vieni, amor, mio'
- Madama Butterfly: Act One: 'Leri son salita tutta sola in secreto'
- Madama Butterfly: Act One: 'Tutti zitti!' - 'E concesso al nominato Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton'
- Madama Butterfly: Act One: 'O Kami! O Kami!'
- Madama Butterfly: Act One: 'Bimba, bimba, non piangere'
- Madama Butterfly: Act One: 'Viene la sera'
- Madama Butterfly: Act One: 'Bimba, dagli occhi pieni di malia'
- Madama Butterfly: Act Two - Part One: 'E Izaghi ed Izanami, Sarundasico e Kami'
- Madama Butterfly: Act Two - Part One: 'Un bel di vedremo levarsi un fil di fumo'
- Madama Butterfly: Act Two - Part One: 'C'e. Entrate' - 'Chiedo scusa'
- Madama Butterfly: Act Two - Part One: 'Yamadori, ancor le pene dell'amor non v'han deluso?'
- Madama Butterfly: Act Two - Part One: 'Ora a noi. Sedete qui'
- Madama Butterfly: Act Two- Part One: 'Due cose potrei far'
- Madama Butterfly: Act Two - Part One: 'E questo? Egli potra pure scordare?'
- Madama Butterfly: Act Two - Part One: 'Vespa! Rospo maledetto!'
- Madama Butterfly: Act Two - Part One: 'Vedrai, piccolo amor, mia pena e mio conforto'
- Madama Butterfly: Act Two- Part One: 'Scuoti quella fronda di ciliegio'
- Madama Butterfly: Act Two - Part One: 'Coro a bocca chiusa' - Summchor - Humming Chorus - Choeur a bouche fermee
- Madama Butterfly: Part Two: (Introduzione) 'Oh eh! oh eh!'
- Madama Butterfly: Part Two: 'Gia il sole! Cio-Cio-San'
- Madama Butterfly: Part Two: 'Chi sia?' - 'Zitta! Non la destar'
- Madama Butterfly: Part Two: 'lo so che alle sue pene non ci sono conforti!'
- Madama Butterfly: Part Two: 'Addio fiorito asil'
- Madama Butterfly: Part Two: 'Glielo dirai?' - 'Prometto'
- Madama Butterfly: Part Two: 'Vespa! Voglio che tu risponda'
- Madama Butterfly: Part Two: 'Tu? tu? Piccolo Iddio!'
Music reviews of Puccini: Madama Butterfly
Music Review: Stings like a bee
Rating: 5 Stars
This recording is a very intense and beautiful experience. Freni has discussed in interviews how amazed she was at Sinopoli's ability to wring out the emotion and psychological states (he was a trained doctor)of characters. He makes the most of the claustrophobic setting of this work and it is a rather harrowing and heart breaking experience hearing Butterfly inexorably heading towards disaster. Some of the scenes where this has the greatest impact are the letter scene with Sharpless and of course the final scenes.
One cannot deny that Freni sounds very mature but if you are going to let that stop you form enjoying opera you won't get much pleasure (Do we complain about Nilsson's Salome or Sutherland's Violetta?). She portays Butterfly's emotional anguish to perfection and the power and beauty of her tone in the climaxes are extraordinary. She is helped by a superb, rich recording with the voices captured closely, so there is none of the loss of impact as there is on the Manon Lescaut recording.
Carreras was in vocal decline when this recording was made and there is an obvious cut and paste in the tape where they had to patch things together to get a usable version. But I find him in good form here, more preferable than in his recording's of La Forza del Destino or Andrea Chenier from around the same time. What is undeniable is the intensity of his performance. His singing in the love duet makes you understand why Butterfly would wait three years for his return. (Listen for the lines "vieni, vieni" towards the end. Who wouldn't have dropped their kimono?).
Pons and Berganza are perect in their roles. He has the warm, non- threatening tone needed for opera's most ineffectual character (no cooincidence that he is called Sharpless) and Berganza is the perfect foil for an older sounding Butterfly.
Sinopoli creates the tension through attention to detail but also through the use of slow deliberate tempi. Sometimes this is breathtaking and sometimes it can be stifling. So while some scenes are dramatically, immensely successful the overall pacing can wear you down. If you listen to Barbirolli's recording with Scotto or Karajan with Callas you will hear versions that achieve a more balanced dramatic picture through being less interventionist.
I find I listen to this recording in sections, but I treasure it greatly. Buy it, turn it up load (it will knock you over) and wallow to your heart's content.
Description of Puccini: Madama Butterfly
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