I write the following as somebody who took an opera newcomer to this production a couple of years ago.

The ENO's Butterfly is inventive and very beautiful.  My reservation about it - certainly about taking a newcomer to it - is that it isn't a particularly representative example of an opera production, what with all the puppetry and visual effects.

One thing it had going for it the first time around was the visual effectiveness of casting teeny-tiny Mary Plazas in the title role, even though her voice was not of a size to balance comfortably with a Puccini orchestra.  This time round it's Judith Howarth - tallish, middle-aged British soprano - who I have heard mainly in coloratura roles (in which she's highly impressive), indeed I think Plazas has the weightier voice.  Potentially, this revival may therefore be short of both visual and vocal effectiveness.

Biggest problem last time round was the diction, especially in Act 1.  I couldn't make out a word of it (though it improved throughout the evening, and the surtitles, though they shouldn't be necessary, did help).  In this revival you've got the same tenor (Gwyn Hughes Jones) who was the main problem, diction-wise.

However, Ashley Holland as Sharpless and Karen Cargill as Suzuki make it (IMHO) unmissable.

I've heard some negative reactions to this Madame Butterfly (and had one myself, but I'm not at all keen on either Madame B. or Anthony Minghella).

But I know several people, not regular opera-goers, who absolutely loved it, and I think most did. It does look very pretty, in a slightly minimalist way.

The puppet child was the one thing I really liked about the production, but you might want to explain about that to the niece beforehand because some people found it, and especially the visible puppeteers, a bit hard to fathom.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunraku

ETA where can I read about the Trovatore in Bucharest? Oh, found it.

It is so tricky to pick the right thing for somebody else's first opera.

Usually if somebody asks my advice on the subject I try to find a revival of a production I have seen in the past and "approved", usually of a repertoire classic.  I have successfully taken non-operagoers to ENO's Tosca, Carmen (the old Jonathan Miller production), Rigoletto, Boheme and Magic Flute.

My brother has possibly been put off for life after being coerced by my dad's partner into a family outing to an awful substandard performance of La Boheme at age 14 - I know it was awful, as I too was coerced into being there.  It had a reasonable Marcello and Musetta, and when they took their bows I said to my brother "They were the best things about it, don't you think?" to which his response was "What were - the armchair and the fireplace?"

Had it been left up to me, I would have carefully selected something I thought might actually arouse his interest.  It might have been a few years before I found something suitable, but it would possibly have been more productive.

That was the first and last time my brother ever set foot inside an opera house.  It was eight years ago, and he is now 22.  However, tonight he and I are going to "Impempe Yomlingo", the Young Vic's South African take on "The Magic Flute" arranged for marimbas, township percussion and so forth.  His ticket was my Christmas present to him, and I asked if he was interested before I booked it.  I'm not approaching it as opera, and I don't think he is either.

That will be interesting for me.  One of my gripes with Puccini is that he never gives the mezzo and bass any of those lovely, slushy, declamatory, lyric, fill-one-side-of-a-78 numbers that he gives his prima donnas and tenors.  I will do my best to appreciate their roles this time round.

I suspect that one reason for my niece choosing Madame B was that we took her mother (my sister) to it years ago at ROH and she was visibly moved.  (I suspect it does get mothers in a way that the rest of us miss.)  My sister would probably recommend it, although I suspect her operatic experience is limited.

That's interesting, Ruth.

As I've probably related before, I think my first one was "Samson and Delilah", which my parents took me to by accident when I was 10 or 11, thinking they'd booked for the ballet but having got the wrong night  

I think I quite liked it even though ISTR the production had a Golden Calf instead of an orgy (or perhaps the calf had gone along on the wrong evening as well). Anyway it doesn't seem to have put me off going again.

How old is your niece, DB?

Just wanted to clarify something with regard to my aforementioned early experience of Hansel and Gretel:

I think there must have been something about it that just didn't sink in.  I certainly don't put my lack of recollection down to my extreme youth or the fact that it was well over twenty years ago.  Indeed, I'm sure it was only a few months later that I saw a mere ten minutes of "La traviata" on TV, which lodged itself in my memory to the extent that it had a direct and powerful influence on my decision aged 17 to explore opera.

---

At the risk of going off topic, can I ask why so many experienced and knowledgeable opera fans have an antipathy towards Madama Butterfly?  I don't much like it myself, and I've never really been able to put my finger on why.  I suppose I find it overly emotionally manipulative and sentimental*, and if not done well, the characters (particularly Cio-Cio-San herself) become twee and stereotypical.  Also, the title role is so often inadequately cast.

However, generally speaking I'm sure it's the idea of it I dislike more than the reality of it.  I find myself in the situation where I see a new production/revival coming up and I think "Oh no, not Butterfly again", but then half the time I decide to go anyway and usually find I love it.

*...but then again I absolutely adore Suor Angelica!