This production of Madama Butterfly made a splendid start to New Zealand Opera's 2013 season. It is broadly traditional and lovely to look at, but allows the unpleasantness of the story to bite through. Very little traditional Puccinian wallowing came from either the stage or the pit.

The set was a wooden frame in which translucent panels slid in and out and up and down creating a flexible set for Butterfly's home. It was not only flexible in the spaces it created, but in the ways it could be used. Realistically, as in a sumptuously costumed wedding scene where the back opened to show a sunny diorama of a stylised Japanese garden; symbolically, as when Butterfly killed herself in an icy white cage with the stage and backdrop bathed in blood-red light; and sometimes and to great effect decoratively, with blossoms cascading down as Butterfly and Suzuki decorated the house for Pinkerton's return, and in a marvellous end to the love duet, dozens of lanterns descended slowly from the flies as Butterfly sings of the night and the stars.

So seamless were the various effects, it's difficult to disentangle the contributions of the production team but Kate Cherry (director), Christina Smith (designer) and Matt Scott (lighting designer) are all to be congratulated. We can probably single Ms Cherry out for the detailed interactions between the various characters. Kate Pinkerton (Bianca Andrew), for example, emerged as a distinct personality, which doesn't always happen..

Antoinette Halloran (Cio-Cio San) was a little edgy in her entrance, but soon settled down to give some fine singing, powerful but nuanced, with a wide dynamic range. High points were the long lamenting phrases of "Che tua madre" sung to Sorrow and an increasingly embarrassed Sharpless, and her baleful monotones as she realises that Pinkerton wasn't coming back, and that her son would be taken from her. She has a very expressive face, and Butterfly's moments of happiness and gaiety clearly contrasted with the looming tragedy.

Piero Pretti was a good looking and sounding Pinkerton, with a secure top; better as the selfish lover of the beginning than as the remorseful father of the ending, but that has as much to do with the part as the performer. Lucy Schaufer and Peter Savidge as Suzuki and Sharpless were vivid performers, both caring for Butterfly, but powerless to stop the action. All the minor parts were well taken, especially James Benjamin Rodgers' physical and clearly sung Goro.

There was finely characterised work from the Chapman Tripp Chorus, present on stage during the Humming Chorus. The Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra played well if not flawlessly, and the whole show was steered expertly and unsentimentally by Tobias Ringborg.

So a marvellous night, and how good to be in the refurbished ASB Theatre of the Aotea Centre, elegant with pale wood walls and red seating, and with vastly improved acoustics. The audience clearly enjoyed themselves, and would have left keenly anticipating the rest of the season.