The Royal Opera House: Madama Butterfly

Great art is problematic. It takes our world and presents it in ways that delight us, surprise us and occasionally shock us. It is not bland, nor blasé, nor comfortable. That deliberately invoked unease is (literally) what makes it great. Few would say that Puccini's operas do not deserve the label great art and few would say that they do not demand a stance to be taken towards the themes his work uses to generate the rawest of emotions that have stirred audiences for over a century. For some