Glorious Butterfly proves a mesmerising spectacle

Celine Byrne and Julian Hubbard in Madama Butterfly PAT REDMOND

REVIEW: Madama Butterfly by Irish National Opera

Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Dublin

This production of Giacomo Puccini’s heartrending melodrama was brave, beautiful and beguiling from beginning to end. Rarely does an opera audience sit as motionless as this one, so riveted was it by the hypnotic narrative.

The bravery involved was that of artistic director Ben Barnes to transform the cultural impact of the East-meets-West tragic storyline, with all its treachery and deceit, ...