I really liked the piece. I found the score to be beautiful with pastiche nods towards Adam’s Copland & Wagner. It’s a huge piece with lots of detail and heaps of named characters.

The four principals I found to be outstanding and gave truly great performances. Special praise does need to be given to Victoria Simmond’s.

Graham Broadbent sounded underpowered and could done with a little amplification or diction work and so could some of the other characters.

The big glitzy West End production I grew to love. I feel it’s one of the most complicated opera productions I have ever seen.

Now my moan, if feels too long. There are lots of vignettes creating the overall narrative and I found them to be quite repetitive and so the story feels overly long even it’s only 2hr30. I do question if 2hr30 is 30 minutes too long for a children’s piece

Overall though a great piece and Opera North have yet again created more fantastic theatre and music making. I hope to see it again and I hope it gets recorded.

It is indeed being filmed for DVD, this week, I believe, in london. I thought it was a stunning production, with enough darkness and disturbing moments, and the best whale I've seen on stage (oh hang on the royal exchange's moby dick might hold that accolade - whales on stage, a thesis, discuss!), and the ending was extremely moving.A most beuatiful set, and the music seemed to bring to mind Janacek at his most glorious. Good old Opera North, consistently the most adventurous opera company around, and with the best chorus.

Thanks for these enthusiastic messages - I am seeing the opera on Friday. I received a CD from Opera North and decided to give this work a try.

I need some encouragement on the opera front - I was very disappointed with the ENO Madam Butterfly this week and found it completely unengaging.

Good Luck

I’m not a Butterfly fan, I find not much happens over a long period of time.

I think this could be ideal introduction to opera. The score is light and melodious but also very detailed and well structured.

Let us know how you find it.

ah well you have probably just missed Opera North's very very powerful and clear Butterfly, beautifully performed, and simply designed, where Butterfly's westernisation is very carefully and movingly plotter. Other than a slightly unnecessary prologue and epilogue reminding us that Butterfly is a whore and there are whores still today, it is probably the best Butterfly I've seen of abotu 20 different productions.

Just to report that I thought it outstanding and extremely well sung and performed. No surtitles but the singing came across pretty clear most of the time. There were many enraptured children in the audience who were a damn sight quieter than many opera audiences of my acquaintance. I thought the score ravishing and they must have spent a small fortune on the visuals too - even Pinocchio's expanding and contacting nose! I hope they keep it in the repertoire and put it on for future young ( and not so young) fans.