Madama Butterfly, Royal Opera House, London, review: Ermonela Jaho is the best Cio-Cio-San London has seen in years

The Albanian soprano Ermonela Jaho took Covent Garden by storm with her electrifying performances in Puccini’s Il trittico, but although she’s sung his Cio-Cio San to acclaim around the world, she’s waited till now to sing that role in London. And how poignantly she does it: the final scene in the Leiser-Caurier production is exquisitely understated, with minimal tear-jerking stuff with the tot, and no clumsily symbolic meetings between East and West; this allows the staging to perfectly set off the pathos of Jaho’s performance.

Visually this production is at the opposite pole from the opulent Minghella one at the Coliseum, and although its wonky Japonaiserie set my Japanese companion’s teeth on edge, the intimacy of its drama becomes compelling. And under Antonio Pappano’s baton every nuance of the score’s tender-cruel refinement is brought out.

There are some fine performances, notably that of the Argentinian tenor Marcelo Puente as Pinkerton, whose endearingly old-fashioned acting in no way undermines the sustained beauty of his singing. Jeremy White’s Bonze is appropriately thunderous, Elizabeth Dershong is discreetly commanding as Suzuki, and Scott Hendricks makes a sympathique Sharpless. Jaho alternates between vulnerability and feistiness, at times suggesting the fragility of a bunraku puppet with her body-language. Her great duet with Puente cries to the heavens, and her long solo in which hope contends with fear has us hanging on every bar: she is the best Madama B London has seen in years.