Puccini Madama Butterfly (daniel Oren, Fiorenza Cedolins) [2005]

Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly – the composer’s selfproclaimed favourite work and certainly one of the most beloved operas in the repertoire – is brought to life at the world-famous Arena di Verona. This opulent production, directed by respected film and opera director Franco Zeffirelli, is sung by a cast of excellent singers. Fiorenza Cedolins is a sought after Butterfly singer and her Pinkerton is performed by the renowned tenor Marcello Giordani. The celebrated operatic baritone Juan Pons gives the principled United States consul Sharpless. The performance is lead by long-established Arena di Verona conductor Daniel Oren with all the splendour that a Puccini opera demands. The sum of all this is a gloriously sung musical experience.

In 1996 Vox released a 4-CD set that included this, the original La Scala fiasco version of Madama Butterfly, as well as Puccini’s revisions for Brescia and Paris. It was a fascinating release and fans of the opera immediately realized what had been wrong with the first version: The first act contained far too much “local color” in the form of music for Butterfly’s relatives (there’s even a drinking song for her uncle Yakuside), and the 90-minute last act, in addition to simply being too long, dragged out the overnight vigil, too abruptly went into Butterfly’s lullaby to her child, and wasted an extra couple of minutes between Butterfly’s final lines and her suicide–what on earth could she be doing?

In his sumptuous filming of Puccini's opera, directer Jean-Pierre Ponnelle uses an array of cinematic effects (including a memorable dream sequence) to evoke the protagonists' irreconcilably separate lives and worlds. As Butterfly, Mirella Freni is unbearably moving in one of the finest performances of her career, while Plácido Domingo makes Lt. Pinkerton a more sympathetic figure then usual.

The Dresdner Philharmonie, Sächsischer Staatsopernchor Dresden and conductor Daniel Oren present Verdi’s masterpiece La Traviata, together with a stellar cast including René Barbera as Alfredo, Lester Lynch as Germont, and world star soprano Lisette Oropesa as Violetta.

Tosca is a story of lust and crime, originally written for Sarah Bernhardt by the French playwright, Victorien Sardou. Puccini’s genius lay in his remarkable ability to transform such a tale into an opera of the highest drama and passion. Tosca was central to Puccini’s career and revealed a new refinement and fluency in his work. Through Tosca, a drama of idealistic young love, Puccini was bidding farewell to young manhood, with melodic style and rousing passion.This production of one of Puccini’s best-loved works from the magnificent Roman amphitheatre in Verona features the outstanding performances of Eva Marton in the title role, with Ingvar Wixell as a superbly wicked Scarpia and Giacomo Aragall as the ill-fated Cavaradossi.

Since Madama Butterfly has more stage time than other sopranos, it is imperative that the singing actress captures extensive dramatic variety in addition to singing with exquisite tone and an affinity to Puccini. Mirella Freni, one of the greatest recorded Butterfly's of all time, succeeds at these demands with vocal sensitivity and eloquence. She is assisted by Karajan's superb, symphonic conducting, crisply and poignantly realizing all of Puccini's vast moods; Ludwig's urgent, loving and tenderly sung Suzuki; and Pavarotti's endearing and almost likeable Pinkerton. In addition, the Pavarotti-Freni duets are nectars of the gods. Get out the tissues and indulge. - Barbara Eisner Bayer- Amazon -

After having recorded La Fanciulla del West, conductor Lawrence Foster now expands his Puccini discography on PENTATONE with Madama Butterfly, together with the Coro & Orquestra Gulbenkian, as well as Elisabeth Kulman (Suzuki), Stefano Secco (Pinkerton), Lester Lynch (Sharpless) and Melody Moore (Cio-Cio-San) in the title role. Despite its disastrous premiere, Madama Butterfly has become one of Puccini’s most successful and popular operas. While the Japanese ambience usually captures the attention, the original dramatic conception and exceptional symphonic qualities of the work are often overlooked. Lawrence Foster’s interpretation brings out the symphonic character of the opera, while Melody Moore’s charismatic interpretation of the title role fully realizes the work’s tragic and dramatic potential.