Madama Butterfly - Adaptations

Adaptations

• 1915: A silent film version was directed by Sidney Olcott and starred Mary Pickford.
• 1922: A silent color film, The Toll of the Sea, based on the opera/play was released. This movie, which starred Anna May Wong in her first leading role, moved the storyline to China. It was the second two-color Technicolor motion picture ever released and the first film made using Technicolor Process 2.
• 1932: Madame Butterfly, a non-singing drama (with ample portions of Puccini's score in the musical underscoring) made by Paramount starring Sylvia Sidney and Cary Grant in black & white.
• 1954: Madame Butterfly, a screen adaptation of the opera, directed by Carmine Gallone jointly produced by Italy's Cineriz and Japan's Toho. The film was shot in Technicolor at Cinecittà in Rome, Italy. Starring Japanese actress Kaoru Yachigusa as Cio-Cio San and Italian tenor Nicola Filacuridi as Pinkerton, and with Japanese actors and Italian actors, dubbed by Italian opera singers.
• 1974: Madama Butterfly, a German television adaptation of the opera starring Mirella Freni and Plácido Domingo, directed by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle.
• 1984: British Pop impresario Malcolm McLaren wrote and performed a UK hit single, "Madame Butterfly (Un bel dì vedremo)", produced by Stephen Hague, based on the opera and featuring the famous aria. The track was part of his 1984 album Fans which featured adaptations of various operas.
• 1987: Con Onor Muore was played during a scene in the erotic thriller Fatal Attraction, in which Dan Gallagher (Michael Douglas) tells Alex Forrest (Glenn Close) the childhood memory of his father taking him to see the opera. Alex later tries to re-enact the act by attempting suicide when Dan leaves. The original ending of the movie featured a successful suicide by Alex, although the ending was reshot before the film reached theaters.
• 1988: In David Henry Hwang's play M. Butterfly, the story of a French diplomat and a Chinese opera singer, Butterfly is denounced as a western stereotype of a timid, submissive Asian.
• 1989: The Broadway and West End musical Miss Saigon was, in part, based on Madama Butterfly. The story was moved to Vietnam and Thailand and set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War and the Fall of Saigon, but the central themes are largely unchanged.
• 1993: David Cronenberg directed a film adaptation of David Henry Hwang's 1988 play.
• 1995: Frédéric Mitterrand directed a film version of the opera in Tunisia, North Africa, starring Richard Troxell and Chinese singer Ying Huang in the lead roles.
• 1995: Madam Butterfly is the central piece of Magnetic Rose, an animated short produced by Katsuhiro Otomo and directed by Kōji Morimoto. The soundtrack by Yoko Kanno is largely influenced by Puccini's opera.
• 1995: Australian choreographer Stanton Welch created a ballet, inspired by the opera, for The Australian Ballet.
• 1996: The Album Pinkerton by the rock band Weezer was based loosely on the opera.
• 1998: "Un bel dì vedremo", part of the piece, was sung when Midori Ito lit the Olympic Flame at Nagano.
• 2001: Aria by Pjotr Sapegin, an animated short inspired by the opera, awarded as best animated short by Tickleboots best online videos 2006 and Best short film Norway 2002, won Grand Prix in Odense International Film Festival 2002 and won the audience award in Århus Film Festival 2002.
• 2003: English soprano Sarah Brightman sampled "Un bel dì vedremo" in her song "It's a beautiful day", included in her album Harem; that song in turn was a cover of the 2000 song ""Ein schöner Tag" on the album Weltreise by the German band Schiller.
• 2004: On the 100th anniversary of Madama Butterfly, Shigeaki Saegusa composed Jr. Butterfly to a libretto by Masahiko Shimada.
• 2007: Hayley Westenra's album Celtic Treasure contains an English language translation of the aria "Un bel dì vedremo" under the title "One Fine Day".
• 2008: New York City Opera's Live from Lincoln Center telecast of its production of Madama Butterfly, directed by Mark Lamos, wins a Primetime Emmy Award.
• 2009: Swedish mezzo-soprano Malena Ernman sings a cross-over, dance adaptation of "Un bel dì vedremo", titled "Un bel dì", included in her double album La Voix du Nord.