Puccini’s Madama Butterfly – Piedmont Opera Theatre (2001) – Winston-Salem Journal

Blissful: this ‘Butterfly’ is dressed with color and beauty.

Opera doesn’t get much better than this. Piedmont Opera Theatre is presenting a magnificent, take-your-breath-away production of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly… [When] Butterfly commits suicide – the way it’s done here is unforgettable. When she thrusts the knife in, bloody red colors fill the white tiles on the wall. It’s downright chilling… Scarcely anything falls short in director James Marvel’s thoughtful and insightful staging. The lead singers…act in a way that tells the story directly and believably. One of this production’s finest musical and dramatic moments happens at the end of Act 1, during Pinkerton’s extended love duet with Butterfly. It covers a lot of ground, becoming one of the most elaborate and convincing seductions in opera.

– Winston-Salem Journal, October 6, 2001, Ken Keuffel