2h 26min | Drama, Music | TV Movie 14 September 1975
Director: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle
Herbert von Karajan ... musical director
Stars: Mirella Freni, Plácido Domingo, Christa Ludwig.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0256165/
Someday, when I come back and watch it again, this might get a 10.
It blends my favorite medium, cinema, with an opera with music I love. And as I get used to the deep tragedy of the story, I focus on that less.
This is clearly made in a studio (TV), but we have NO proscenium, no audience. This is a Movie, with camera angles from all directions, and cuts to accommodate new setups. We have beach vegetation outside Butterfly's home in one direction, and lush greenery nearby. But at no time did I believe they were outdoors.
The acting is superb. Freni as B'fly makes me forget she's not Japanese, and she's in closeup a LOT.
Domingo (b. '41) as Pinkerton is the rat that I want anyway, and I don't want rats. I've always found him attractive, but he's so young here, it's amazing. He has 1 other actor credit before this: in a TV concert performance, Bernstein in London: Verdi's Requiem (1970), found online. It's ok, but it's a choral concert, not a drama.
This time, for some reason, I wondered why a 15 yo geisha knows English, but got snide and quipped that it's great they have Italian as their common language.
Director Ponelle also has credits here for costume and production design, so does that mean he guided the actors in their performances? Next time watch the screen credits for stage director.
UNITEL, Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF), dir. Ponnelle, cond. von Karajan; 9
