This is a heartrending, gripping account of this Puccini masterpiece. You're apt to remember it at least as much for the splendid dramatic skills of the players as for their excellent singing. Patricia Racette is clearly the star of the show, becoming such a convincing Cio-Cio-San in the way she exudes the teenaged geisha's innocence, submissiveness and all-consuming naïve love for Pinkerton. By opera's end, you're nearly breathless and sweating from the pain Racette conveys in her character's tragic fate.