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A complex portrait of obsessive and destructive passion.

Boston Lyric Opera opened a new production of Madama Butterfly on Thursday night, with gorgeous results. From the beautifully articulated set to the connection of the singers, the production was clean and inspired. While the music and the libretto go unchanged, different productions bring out different aspects of the well-loved opera. In one, Butterfly’s lost honor may be central to the retelling.

Just as it seemed that contemporary American opera had sworn off melody completely, composer John Musto brings us The Inspector. Paired with Mark Campbell's brightly comic libretto, Musto's score sweeps the hilarious plot along, punctuated by clever musical references and familiar tunes.

Boston Lyric Opera's production of The Barber of Seville looks, sounds and feels like a storybook come to life. Wildly improbable and completely over the top, the story recounts the antics of Count Almaviva and his quest to win the love of Rosina, freeing her from her vile guardian in the process.

Imagine a tattered red curtain, blocking the set but revealing several bodies, bound head to toe in grey, hanging from the ceiling by their feet. It looks like the home of a malevolent, human spider - its prey a silent presence overhead. This is the opening of Verdi's Macbeth, at Boston Lyric Opera.

From the opening glissandos of Britten's opera, we know this is not Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Where the Mendelssohn / Balanchine ballet is romantic, dreamy and reminiscent of an illustrated fairytale, Britten's opera borders on the nightmarish and eerie.

By all rights, Agrippina should be a tragedy. It begins with news of Claudius' death and ends with a roll call of doom, with political intrigue, power struggles, infidelity and dysfunction filling in the blanks. The Roman Empire is rife with opera fodder, and operas are rife with tales of Greek gods and Roman heroes (and anti-heroes).