
DATE: Saturday, May 31, 1997                TAG: 9705300087

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E4   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Movie Review 

SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC 

                                            LENGTH:   71 lines

FILMING ``MADAME BUTTERFLY'' OUTSIDE BREAKS NO NEW GROUND

THE SWAGGERING, charismatic performance of Virginia Opera alumnus Richard Troxell is at the center of the sumptuous new film version of ``Madame Butterfly.'' Directed by Frederic Mitterand, nephew of the former president of France, this new ``outdoorsy'' look is designed to appeal to a larger, more general audience, along with the casting of ``believable'' actor-singers in the famous roles of Lt. Pinkerton and Cio-Cio-San, the ill-fated lovers in an East vs. West culture conflict.

In the final analysis, though, the film is more successful at merely preserving and recreating the soaring melodies of the Puccini score than it is in breaking new ground. Stylistically, it is a mixed bag - not quite deciding whether it wants to be a movie-movie or a filmed record of the opera.

Shooting outdoors brings a brand of realism to the drama that could never be done on stage. On the other hand, the arias are necessarily static moments of soaring music. Mitterand attempts to suggest motion by continually moving the camera but it inevitably becomes what it must be - an opera, not a film.

In an attempt to ``open up'' the proceedings, the director has inserted flashbacks to Cio-Cio-San's days as a geisha dancer. Most daring, and ineffective, is the use of a silent film documentary of Japanese demonstrations against Western involvement, with a humming chorus in the background. This intrusion is jarring and misplaced.

``Madame Butterfly'' is the story of a fleeting love affair between a selfish American naval lieutenant and a 15-year-old Japanese child bride. She gives up her religious faith and disowns her family to wait, faithfully, for his return. When he does return, it is with a wife - and to claim his child for his own.

Troxell, who sang locally in Virginia Opera's ``The Magic Flute,'' is by far the most satisfying vocal characterization. He, more than in some other versions, plays Lt. Pinkerton as an all-out heel. He is perhaps a reluctant heel in the last reel but, still, a man who used and abused. Of course the plot has been stretched and expanded in everything from ``M. Butterfly'' to ``Philadelphia'' (when Tom Hanks had his finest dramatic moment as a doomed man reveling in Puccini's romanticism). On Broadway, and soon to come to Chrysler Hall is ``Miss Saigon,'' with the plot transformed to Vietnam.

Ying Huang, the 23-year-old Chinese soprano who plays Cio-Cio-San, is too bland and distant for close-up film passion. Only the cliched mysticism of the Orient could explain her rather distant and stoic approach to the part. She is also too old to suggest the 15-year-old bride - a matter that is of less importance in the opera house but becomes a problem when the ``realism'' of film comes into play.

Vocally, both she and Troxell soar, although the mechanical aides of film prevent the risks that are the great attraction of live opera.

Fans of the music will not be disappointed. Orchestre de Paris, conducted by James Conlon, is an expansive musical force that could not be afforded by most opera companies - and the theater's multispeaker sound system does full justice to the score. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

ARROW

Richard Troxell and Ying Huang star as ill-fated lovers in ``Madame

Butterfly.''

Graphic

MOVIE REVIEW

``Madame Butterfly''

Cast: Richard Troxell, Ying Huang, Ning Liang, Richard Cowan

Director: Frederic Mitterand

Music: Based on the opera by Puccini with libretto by Illica and

Giacosa, conducted by James Conlon

Mal's rating: three stars

Location: Naro in Norfolk, Saturday and Sunday at 1 p.m. (In