Poor Cio-Cio-San! The 15-year-old geisha (here superb soprano Eleonora Buratto) who, having renounced her family and Japanese traditions for the love of an American naval officer (Stefan Pop), finds herself abandoned in favour of a Western wife. Puccini used this classic theme of a woman seduced and abandoned to create an opera with lush orchestration and burning lyricism. For singular American director Robert Wilson, this Japanese tragedy of a woman as fragile as a butterfly’s wings proves the ideal environment in which to display his signature refined formalism. Far from the traditional fans and cherry branches, he uses stylised acting and a stripped-down space to allow the melodic lines to blossom in all their purity.