Madam Butterfly 3D
When I was taking a brief tour through London this spring, I had no idea I would be watching an opera from its opera house so soon! I am back in Brazil now, but Cinemark decided to bring the opera of Madam Butterfly to me! In stunning 3D quality, the movie was a special screening available for a limited amount of time, straight from the opera house in London (not live, though!) and I decided to watch it tonight! It was such a fantastic experience and I think that the only best thing would have been to watch it live!
Madam Butterfly tells us the tale of a young geisha (Madam Butterfly) married to an American marine. She commits to her relationship in every way possible, sacrificing any ties she had with her family, beliefs and culture for her husband, something we see in her joy of announcing her home as an American one, even though she lives in Japan. Her husband, however, needs to return to the United States, where he remains for 3 years. Though there’s never a shadow of a doubt in her heart that he will be returning to her, events take a tragic turn.
I don’t want to spoil too much, since it’s a beautiful, delicate piece and I don’t want to take anything away from it in case you’re planning on watching it in the movies or even live sometime soon, but I would definitely recommend the experience! Especially this specific performance since I’ve looked at pictures of some others and I find it slightly distracting that the lead wasn’t even Asian to begin with, but considering the European roots of the art of opera, it isn’t surprising at all.
Since I had never watched an opera before, be it live or on the silver screen, I went into the movie theater with an open mind and I was extremely pleasantly surprised! It’s amazing what music can do, and considering there was absolutely no dialogue that wasn’t sung, it’s all we got! I cried, I laughed, I got chills, and I’m sure the experience would have been infinitely more exciting if it was live! At least the 3D aspect of it brought to life a bit more, and some of the scenes were so much more beautiful because of the three dimensional effects! There’s a certain point in the opera where Cho-Cho-San and her maid, Suzuki, decorate the house with flowers, and their dancing and singing are absolutely gorgeous, though simple! The final scene, especially, is wonderfully choreographed and we finally understand why Puccini wanted to associate the heroine to a butterfly.
There’s also a visual representation of a metaphor, towards the end, that also illustrates early promotional posters of the opera, that is extremely powerful and wonderful, and definitely one that got me thinking and crying at the same time!
The opera is definitely a must-see even to people who haven’t seen anything of the sort yet. I believe it’s a great way to start! There’s plenty of drama, beauty, gorgeous vocals, feeling, and a fantastic mixture of western and eastern music in general!
Absolutely lovely, my jaw was dropped the whole time!
