Opera Australia’s autumn season in Melbourne with two revivals – one very familiar; the other in its second season, and its first on the bigger Melbourne stage. Each, responsibly, is on a Monday, not always guaranteed to draw a large audience, but the capacious State Theatre was well attended for the first offering, Madama Butterfly.

Moffatt Oxenbould’s production of Giacomo Puccini’s opera (first heard at La Scala in 1904) has often been seen in Melbourne, originally with Cheryl Barker in the title role. This revival follows a long run in Sydney, with alternating casts. Arts Update saw it in Sydney a month ago: a memorable night with Diego Torre opposite Hiromi Omura – dream casting, as they say.

The tiny Sydney stage suits this intense production – it is, after all, a domestic drama, in a ‘collapsible house’ – but the State Theatre’s wide stage, accentuating the elegant sets and costumes, is a more accommodating place for Oxenbould’s stylised stage direction, with its references to Ukiyo-e prints.