Based on the opera by Giacomo Puccini, with libreto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, which had its premiere in 1904. The origin of the story is given by Wikipedia as:
"It is based on the short story "Madame Butterfly" (1898) by John Luther Long, which in turn was based on stories told to Long by his sister Jennie Correll and on the semi-autobiographical 1887 French novel Madame Chrysanthème by Pierre Loti.[1][2][3] Long's version was dramatized by David Belasco as the one-act play Madame Butterfly: A Tragedy of Japan, which, after premiering in New York in 1900, moved to London, where Puccini saw it in the summer of that year."
(spoilers) An American Naval officer in Japan takes a Japanese geisha ("Butterfly") as his wife. Shortly after their wedding, he leaves Japan and his wife. She refuses to divorce him, hoping he will return to live with her and their son, born after he was gone. Three years later, he returns with a new wife from America. Butterfly commits suicide.
This is a TV production with the actors playing their roles in realistic settings and dubbing their pre-recorded singing. Musically, it is excellent in all aspects; the libretto is quite moving, though I do not like the opera format very much. As a visual spectacle, it has some nice indoor sets and a superb acting performance by the leading actress.
(I will not rate this, as I don't rate operas, though perhaps I could in this instance because it is not simply a filmed stage production.)
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