★★★★☆
Five hours after the fairytale wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, it was rather unsporting of Sussex’s very own opera house to put on a production in which a handsome military type takes a bride from another continent, then deserts her. If the timing isn’t good, however, the show is.
I have no idea why one of Puccini’s most popular operas had never been mounted at Glyndebourne’s summer festival before, but Annilese Miskimmon’s staging — tried out on the Glyndebourne tour two years ago — is well worth the 80-year wait. Boldly updated to the 1950s, with the sordid child prostitution of Act I depicted with unflinching directness, it nevertheless has a striking visual beauty. That’s thanks to Nicky Shaw’s ingenious sets,