Madam Butterfly - Puccini
2021

"Director Lindy Hume brings into sharp focus the more disturbing aspects of Puccini’s opera. … not simply the sexist mores where Cio-Cio-San is a commodity, but the supremacist, imperialist and colonialist attitudes in the characters embodying male entitlement and coercion…Hume’s approach makes for a more disturbing experience than the romantic pull-at-the-heartstrings this work is assumed to be."

The Guardian

"WNO’s intelligent, insightful and, finally, piercingly emotional modern-day interpretation of this squalid story of exploitation and callousness. Tiny details take on epoch-defining significance. As The Star-Spangled Banner sounds in the orchestra, Pinkerton flourishes a credit card to pay for Butterfly."

The Times

"Hume isn’t afraid to press the emotional buttons either. Snipe all you like at Puccini’s ‘manipulative’ score but plenty of handkerchiefs will surely have had a workout when Sorrow added his toy dinosaur to Butterfly’s flower arrangement. No spoilers, but the final minutes were as swift, inexorable and brutal as anything on stage or screen. This might not be the Butterfly you expect, but it hits you where it hurts."

Spectator

"Director Lindy Hume brings into sharp focus the more disturbing aspects of Puccini’s opera. … not simply the sexist mores where Cio-Cio-San is a commodity, but the supremacist, imperialist and colonialist attitudes in the characters embodying male entitlement and coercion…Hume’s approach makes for a more disturbing experience than the romantic pull-at-the-heartstrings this work is assumed to be."

The Guardian

"WNO’s intelligent, insightful and, finally, piercingly emotional modern-day interpretation of this squalid story of exploitation and callousness. Tiny details take on epoch-defining significance. As The Star-Spangled Banner sounds in the orchestra, Pinkerton flourishes a credit card to pay for Butterfly."

The Times

"Hume isn’t afraid to press the emotional buttons either. Snipe all you like at Puccini’s ‘manipulative’ score but plenty of handkerchiefs will surely have had a workout when Sorrow added his toy dinosaur to Butterfly’s flower arrangement. No spoilers, but the final minutes were as swift, inexorable and brutal as anything on stage or screen. This might not be the Butterfly you expect, but it hits you where it hurts."

Spectator

"Director Lindy Hume brings into sharp focus the more disturbing aspects of Puccini’s opera. … not simply the sexist mores where Cio-Cio-San is a commodity, but the supremacist, imperialist and colonialist attitudes in the characters embodying male entitlement and coercion…Hume’s approach makes for a more disturbing experience than the romantic pull-at-the-heartstrings this work is assumed to be."

The Guardian

"WNO’s intelligent, insightful and, finally, piercingly emotional modern-day interpretation of this squalid story of exploitation and callousness. Tiny details take on epoch-defining significance. As The Star-Spangled Banner sounds in the orchestra, Pinkerton flourishes a credit card to pay for Butterfly."

The Times

"Hume isn’t afraid to press the emotional buttons either. Snipe all you like at Puccini’s ‘manipulative’ score but plenty of handkerchiefs will surely have had a workout when Sorrow added his toy dinosaur to Butterfly’s flower arrangement. No spoilers, but the final minutes were as swift, inexorable and brutal as anything on stage or screen. This might not be the Butterfly you expect, but it hits you where it hurts."

Spectator

© 2022 Lindy Hume

© 2022 Lindy Hume

© 2022 Lindy Hume

Website justinepowelldesign

Website justinepowelldesign

Website justinepowelldesign