Richard Bratby

Hits you where it hurts: Welsh National Opera’s Madam Butterfly reviewed

Plus: what a teeming, superabundant piece Tippett's Midsummer Marriage is

Lindy Hume does that opera director thing of teleporting the action into an imaginary world that resembles nothing on Earth: Madam Butterfly at the Welsh National Opera. Photo: Richard Hubert Smith

‘It’s generally agreed that in contemporary practice, this opera proposes significant ethical and cultural problems,’ says the director Lindy Hume in the programme book for her new production of Madam Butterfly, and if you’ve just shelled out 75 quid in the expectation of attractive scenery and luscious tunes, that’s you told.

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