Anthony Minghella's Madam Butterfly is a thing of petrified beauty. Rejecting the fad for an anti-Imperialist subtext, his first thesis is that Cio-Cio-San (Mary Plazas) is a victim of the exquisite rituals of Japanese culture. His second is that Lieutenant Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton (Gwyn Hughes Jones) is a sex tourist de ses jours.