In a Floating World, Enter Heartbreak And Puppets.

MINGHELLA, Anthony, 1954-2008; MADAMA Butterfly (Opera); FILMMAKERS; DRAMATIC music; ENTERTAINERS

Two years ago Anthony Minghella's new production of ''Madama Butterfly'' served as a calling card for the newly arrived general manager Peter Gelb's vision of the Metropolitan Opera as a place not only for great singing but also for theatrical innovation. Minghella, a gifted English filmmaker who died in March, offered a gorgeous cinematic spectacle. Dancers and puppeteers made for a lively bustle, but Michael Levine's spare, elegant sets focused attention on the principals by surrounding them with vast, empty space extended with a mirrored ceiling. Mr. Minghella's production had largely shed its novelty value when it returned to the Met on Friday night, though you could still hear a few isolated titters when the puppeteers who portray the toddler Sorrow first clambered onto the stage. (Every performance is someone's first, naturally.) Yet even as it grows familiar to Met regulars, this staging retains its full capacity to beguile and move the viewer. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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