Madame Butterfly

The film is an adaptation of an opera. The work adapted is Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. At the centre of the account is Cio-Cio-San. She is a young Japanese geisha. She marries an American naval officer. From that marriage she hopes for a new life. But the man’s words turn out to be empty. Cio-Cio-San begins to wait. As the waiting stretches out the hope wears away. The film gives the songs in the opera’s own language. James Conlon made the musical adaptation. Ying Huang plays Cio-Cio-San. The shooting was done in Tunisia. On screen Tunisia stands in for Nagasaki at the turn of the century. Richard Troxell and Yoshi Oida are also in the hundred and thirty five minute film. Frédéric Mitterrand’s French and Tunisian coproduction was finished in 1995.