The Korean-born soprano talks about embracing the cultural perils of Puccini’s tragic Madama Butterfly.

“If I fell in love like that, I would do it. Not just in opera. Personally I could do it.”

The subject is suicide, and the calmly delivered answer is perhaps unexpected. I’m sitting with Hyseoung Kwon at the Opera Centre in Sydney’s Surry Hills and up until now the conversation has been calm, focussed and polite. But suddenly the Korean-born soprano who regularly breaks hearts courtesy of an array of doomed operatic heroines reveals a glimpse of the passion behind the cool exterior – the reservoir, I guess, into which she taps to bring life to the likes of Mimì, Liù and, the character we are here to discuss, Madama Butterfly.

As Madama Butterfly on Sydney Harbour. Photo by James Morgan

As we speak, Kwon is just finishing up with the run of Turandot for Handa Opera on the Harbour and she’s rather relieved to have got close to the end without being rained on once. She’s then headed north to Opera Queensland where she’ll lead the company in the first Australian staging of Michael Grandage’s...