So much is made of Butterfly's beauty, her gentle, loyal, Oriental otherness, that we forget the cleareyed woman in Act II who would rather die alone, and at her own hand, than live with Pinkerton's betrayal.
David Nixon's ballet of Puccini's opera depicts Butterfly's fate unflinchingly: weary fatigue, hope gone, and a ritual suicide that releases her from love's dishonour, all make you suspect that inside this sugared Butterfly is a bitter little pill.
First danced by Northern Ballet Theatre in 2002, the year after Nixon became director, Act I is, truth to tell, a chocolate-box ballet.
The sets are pretty, the dancing gloopy, and most of the characters cut from cardboard.
The fault is not the dancers. Keiko Amemori's Butterfly shows some subtlety, but Nixon's choreography is functional and lumpily distributed.
The early part of Act I is a quick succession of short scenes, like hurried establishing shots to get everything into view, only then Nixon gear-grinds to an over-long duet for Butterfly and Pinkerton (Christopher Hinton-Lewis).
Another problem is muddled characters: are the women at the wedding geishas? Are the men warriors? If not, who are they?
There's also some doubling up, with Hironao Takahashi both Butterfly's father and a Holy Man, only he looks confusingly the same.
Act II is stronger. Not only does it feature Puccini's better melodies, but they've set a fire under Nixon. Apart from one wafty-about haunted dream scene, all is clear, the action is pacy, and the drama genuinely, unexpectedly moving.
When Pinkerton arrives, with wife number two in tow, only to flee the scene, you know as well as Butterfly that life can't be lived without honour.
Drawing on Kabuki theatre and traditional Japanese music, the final suicide scene is potent drama.
With it comes an icy echo of ballet's Giselle. Butterfly is innocence betrayed, only unlike Giselle, she doesn't have Christianity's redemptive safety net. After death there is nothing. A bitter pill, indeed.
Madame Butterfly, 9-13 May. Information: 0870 737 7737.
Northern Ballet Theatre: Madame Butterfly
