With Puccini's MADAME BUTTERFLY, Linning staged her first opera, how- ever not a typical classical production. She searched with the lead sin- gers and her dancers for new possibilities of expression that goes beyond an 'opera with dance'. Rather she aimed to blend together both disciplines into a new form, a "Dance Opera". With the costumes of fashion designer Iris van Herpen and the stage design of Martin Fischer, Nanine Linning created a highly aesthetic and abstract world in which Puccini's romantic and emotional music combined success- fully to reach new levels of perception.