With no curtain in the Albert Hall to frame the action, David Freeman's production of Puccini's Japanese tragedy relies on its set and surround to draw us into the fragile physical world where Lieutenant Pinkerton's blundering intervention will wreak terrible havoc. Designer David Roger's expansive water-garden provides a space where Butterfly's community live out their daily lives, and at certain moments interact with the disaster steadily unfolding in their midst. Freeman also makes telling use of the gangways into the arena. Many of the crucial entrances and exits bring the characters into immediate proximity with the audience, pulling us into the action.

But, as always with Butterfly, it is by the strength and focus of the central performances that the drama stands or falls. It comes up with a pair of aces in the Cio-Cio-San of Ai-Lan Zhu and the Suzuki of Zheng Cao. Zhu shows us the vulnerability of the 15-year-old geisha before gradually assuming the full stature of the tragic heroine as her realisation of the completeness of her betrayal kicks in. Cao misses nothing as the loyal Suzuki, registering her compassionate awareness of Butterfly's illusions without being able to free her of them, or ward off her American predators.

On the US side, Gerard Powers reveals the thoughtless confidence of the young officer in an easy flow of bright tone, while Andrew Rupp presents the ineffectual consul as aptly buffeted and lived-in. There are standouts from Richard Angas's Bonze, who crashes into the wedding like the wrath of God, and Alison Kettlewell's Kate Pinkerton, a masterly miniature of well-meaning cruelty. Peter Robinson conducts a finely shaped account of Puccini's emotion-laden score, with the big moments hitting home, occasionally with terrifying force.

· Until March 11. Box office: 020-7838 3100.