Any opera producer who takes on Puccini's pot-boiler needs courage, especially if his employers are to avoid the charge of merely mounting a money spinner. But Tim Albery is a genuine man of the theatre.
His triumph, allowing for a modicum of updating, is to prove that the devil is in the detail. At this jagged interface of East and West, he shows us, lies a telling relationship: not Butterfly's with Pinkerton, but Butterfly's with Sharpless, the American consul.
They have already shown us in Act One that her proposed marriage is doomed. He foresees tragedy all too clearly, she fails to read the signs. Every detail of their interaction is keenly observed.
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When in Act Two Sharpless attempts to read her Pinkerton's feckless letter, his face is etched with pain. And the tragedy is equally unbearable for the audience.
Hildegard Bechtler can always be relied on for designs that gets to the heart of the drama. Here her sliding, semi-transparent screens, among trappings of domesticity but far from luxurious, are spectacularly set against a Fujiyama-style backdrop. Peter Mumford's lighting is sensitive, never intrusive.
Anne-Sophie Duprels brings a gleaming soprano to Butterfly, daintily oriental at the start, but increasingly determined as she turns "American" (a western dress, star-spangled souvenirs in the closet). Her tremolo at quieter moments heightens the sense of her vulnerability. If her chest tone is relatively cloudy, it hardly matters when she can act so convincingly.
Peter Savidge gives an extremely sympathetic Sharpless, responsive to her every phrase, always looking to mollify his countryman's rough edges. In contrast, Rafael Rojas is an appropriately two-dimensional, breezy Pinkerton, though he manages a little more light and shade than we might have expected.
Ann Taylor's troubled Suzuki superbly balances Butterfly's blind optimism. At the death, her anger positively blazes. Alasdair Elliott's oily Goro, blinkered to all else but cutting a deal, and Jonathan May's fiendish Bonze, fiercely indignant at traditional rites being trampled, are further evidence of Albery's incisive intelligence.
A garish streetwalker brings a jarring note to the close. But with Wyn Davies giving full romantic throttle to an immaculate orchestra, there is passion enough here to move even the hardest-bitten opera buff.
Opera North in Madama Butterfly; Grand Theatre, Leeds. Further performances tomorrow, next Friday, and October 13, 16, 18 plus November 8
Box office: (0844) 848 2700
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