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

‘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. In truth, it’s rarely advisable to read what a director thinks about their own work, at least until after the show, when it can serve as a bemusing footnote to the evening’s entertainment. Ah, so that’s why they were wearing pink beehive wigs! If a director is any good at their job, it’ll come across on stage without any need for commentary.

Hume’s production is certainly good; in fact it’s very good, at least after the interval. You might have overheard some of the culture war skirmishes that preceded this determinedly non-oriental staging of Puccini’s tragedia giapponese. A great weariness descends; let’s just say that sooner or later Welsh National Opera would have had to replace its washed-out 1970s Butterfly, which at its last appearance in 2017 was probably the single most beige production on the UK stage.