A most interesting Butterfly; a Butterfly that grows on you. At first you may be a touch disappointed: that Cheryl Barker’s ample and glamorous soprano cannot provide the quiet purity that parts of the role ideally demand‚ that Paul Charles Clarke’s Pinkerton is at times strenuously forceful‚ with an occasional throaty edge to his tone. But then you notice them very thoughtfully doing difficult things rather well: in Butterfly’s first scene with Pinkerton she is convincingly and touchingly shy; earlier‚ in his ‘Dovunque al mondo’ (here ‘The whole world over’) he suggests high spirits rather than arrogance by singing it ‘with frankness’‚ as Puccini asks‚ and relatively quietly‚ as he implies. His edgy hardness returns occasionally‚ and he lacks a few low notes‚ but he is a convincing Pinkerton: not a blackguard‚ but a Yankee bull in a Japanese porcelain shop. Barker’s voice too can take an edge under pressure but she seldom allows it to; in quiet singing she shades her tone expressively. In the letter­reading scene in Act 2 she ‘reads’ the emotional graph with absolute sureness‚ aided by Gregory Yurisich’s concerned‚ embarrassed Sharpless and by the sensitivity of Yves Abel’s direction. His control of rubato is very subtle‚ and the way that you only gradually perceive the entry of the strings (and the precise point where they enter – at the words ‘remembers me no more’) is beautifully done. Characteristic of his way with the score is his rather slow tempo for the music just before the arrival of the angry Bonze (the wedding guests drinking a toast and calling ‘O Kami!’; Pinkerton replying ‘Now drink to the newly married couple’). It is very beautiful‚ of course‚ and I suspect that Abel knows that Puccini‚ realising this‚ reduced the tempo by one­third when revising the score. This is typical of his attention to detail throughout; again and again subtle details of scoring emerge with unostentatious clarity. The venerable RH Elkin translation has been modified somewhat‚ almost always for the better‚ and the cast’s diction is mostly excellent. A little too careful at times in Clarke’s case; not quite careful enough in Jean Rigby’s otherwise excellent Suzuki. All the subsidiary singers and the chorus are good (the exquisitely phrased humming chorus is memorable)‚ the orchestral playing is splendid and the recording very atmospheric. A clear recommendation for those wanting Butterfly in English; even those who don’t will find Abel’s handling of the score absorbing from first to last.