The Baltimore Opera Company's production of Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" is set in Japan around 1900, but its traditional East-meets-West story is reinforced with such modern technological effects as slide projections in place of constructed sets at the Lyric Opera House.

This eye-catching production fares better visually than vocally, and even those slide projections prove to be a mixed blessing. Although it makes for an occasionally frustrating night of grand opera, what ultimately makes for a worthwhile evening is that the singer in the ill-fated title role keeps us emotionally grounded amidst the swirling visuals around her.

The duo behind all that visual imagery -- stage and visual director Paolo Micciche, and scenic and projections designer Michael Clarke -- have a valid conception for presenting an abstracted evocation of the world of a geisha.

Their ever-changing scrims and moving panels evoke Japanese architecture, and they also frame the action in dramatically concentrated ways. Those surfaces double as screens for projected slides whose colors, patterns and figures establish an oriental mood. Likewise, lighting designer Maurizio Montobbio sure knows how to put a single beam of white light on a white kimono.

They have the right idea and plenty of technological talent to carry it out, but they get carried away. The first act in particular has a quick succession of slide imagery more suited to a psychedelic rock concert than to Japanese culture. Also, while it's effective to see performers silhouetted behind multiple scrims, it's dismaying when they are literally singing in the dark.

The entire cast takes a while to warm up during that first act. Whatever the reason, the melodramatic impact of Puccini's opera seems muffled until well into a show that otherwise doesn't stint on sensory overload.

The durable tragedy asserts itself as the beautifully naive Cio-Cio-San revels in her love for the American Navy officer, Lt. Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton, and doesn't seem bothered that her marriage contract to him can be revoked at any time.

When Pinkerton returns to America for three years, Cio-Cio-San, who is known as Butterfly, raises the blue-eyed, blond-haired boy fathered by him. She patiently watches the horizon for the return of Pinkerton's ship. The tragic ending is as inevitable as it is melodic.

After warming up, soprano Shu-Ying Li makes a most affecting Butterfly. Her crisp phrasing encourages us to think about this character's emotional plight, and she really knows how to melt our hearts in the famous aria, "Un bel di." When the panels, slides and lighting occasionally are in harmonious alignment, her consistently fine singing truly does seem enhanced by all the high-tech trappings.

If Shu-Ying Li's endearing performance paradoxically manages to be both understated and forceful, tenor Jose Luis Duval is underwhelming all evening long. His small voice only sporadically flickers to life late in the proceedings, and, sad to say, he produces so little volume in his final call to the suicidal Butterfly that she would have to be a dog to hear it.

Although the supporting cast generally needs to project with more energy, there are some nice bits of character acting. Mezzo soprano Misoon Ghim is the most vocally confident among them, and she brings a lively presence to her role as Butterfly's faithful servant, Suzuki.

Also lively is the orchestra conducted by Stephen Mould, who ensures that Puccini's sumptuously flowing score doesn't lose momentum. The slides may have an arbitrary quality, but there's a firm sense of purpose down in the pit.

"Madama Butterfly" has its remaining performances Wednesday, May 14 at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, May 16 at 8:15 p.m.; Saturday, May 17 at 8:15 p.m. (with Mihoko Kinoshita singing the title role); and Sunday, May 18 at 3 p.m. at the Lyric Opera House, 140 W. Mount Royal Ave., Baltimore. Tickets are $51 to $137. Call 410-727-6000 or go to www.baltimoreopera.com.

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