Puccini’s Madama Butterfly has moved audiences to tears for over a century, asking them to accept that Cio-Cio-San’s suffering is beautiful; that Pinkerton’s betrayal is inevitable; that a woman’s destruction is the price of a meaningful story. But this ‘Butterfly for the ages’ (The Arts Desk) refuses this bargain. The opera is reimagined as a journey through memory and identity by director Daisy Evans and designer Kat Heath (both Albert Herring 2024), with ‘stunning’ lighting by Jake Wiltshire and costumes by Catherine Fay. In their hands, Madama Butterfly becomes urgent and human – a meditation on what we inherit, what we conceal, and what it costs when the truth is finally brought to light.