"Madama Butterfly," for all its greatness, certainly has problems: the sexist diminution of Cio-Cio-San (the title character, a fifteen-year-old Japanese geisha) and the Orientalist condescension toward Japanese culture coexist with powerful expressions of tenderness, nobility, and, of course, melodic genius of a high order.
Inevitably the story of Margaret's dying overshadows that of the young Enrique's early, comical efforts to make love to her. (Of course her tenderness, sweetness and confidence finally enable him to succeed).
Of course there is tenderness, and there is solace, and communion, in art; but the ones who make it are assumed too often, it seems to me, to be "playing," to not be serious, to not understand business, to be overgrown children in need of handling.
Of course tender points cannot be regarded as a very precise measure, but rather may be understood as some sort of standardised measure of diffuse tenderness.
Aging, of course, also improves flavor and tenderness.
Brando's performance is, of course, famous for its incarnation of crude tenderness, of latent virtue given its first chance to arise from vicious circumstances.
'Oh yes, we drink lots,' he says, adding, with a smirk: 'Of water, of course.' Who couldn't feel a surge of protective tenderness for Ollie, and all those other Ollies out there?
"Four Weddings" is of course deeply "sentimental" in the colloquial sense: it displays false and unworthy tenderness.
And, of course, Wotan's Farewell at the end of "Die Walküre," moving from rage to tenderness to the deepest sadness, as he puts his daughter Brünnhilde into her trancelike sleep.
And of course with the oversized ego of a king whose moods swing unpredictably between sentimental tenderness and murderous vengefulness.
