Madame Butterfly (film version) - 1995 - Frédéric Mitterrand

Madame Butterfly is one of the most powerful works of art ever created.

Usually folks focus on the injustice against Cio-Cio San by B.F. Pinkerton in this opera, yet, I feel compelled to play devil's advocate. Pinkerton expresses extreme remorse at the end of the opera and one could argue that Cio-Cio San is using Pinkerton to a significant degree, as he is surely using her. Neither person enters this bizarre marriage completely innocently. Cio-Cio San is only 15, however, and in a desperate situation.

So Cio-Cio San is a 15 year-old geisha singer. She comes from an aristocratic family, but they have lost their wealth during Japan's rush to modernization and now Cio-Cio San sings for her very survival.

She agrees to marry an American naval officer - B.F. Pinkerton - through an oily marriage broker named Goro. Basically, the life of a geisha singer is hell and Pinkerton seems to be Cio-Cio San's ticket out of that hell. For his part, Pinkerton feels that he is 'renting' a wife along with a beautiful huge house he is able to get in Nagasaki. Cio-Cio San throws herself completely into this marriage, with deep seriousness, to the point where she is cursed and abandoned by her own family. It is basically Pinkerton or nothing at this point.

So the big question in the film is whether Cio-Cio San is as deeply in love with Pinkerton as most have believed her to be. I question this. Pinkerton serves a function for her. She serves a function for Pinkerton. At one point when she is asked what she will do if Pinkerton never comes back to her, she says she has two choices - going back to singing as a geisha or killing herself. She then states that killing herself would be preferable to singing as a geisha again.

To what extent does she need Pinkerton and to what extent does she love him? To what extent is Pinkerton playing a horrific game and to what extent does he love and care for her?

This opera packs a big emotional wallop and this film version does an excellent job of delivering this wallop. Mitterand chose new and young performers who are incredible actors as well as singers. One of the best operas on film ever.