North Wales Opera Company returns to its Chester home with Anne Williams-King's production of Puccini's Madama Butterfly, performed in its original language.
North Wales Opera are back at Chester Town Hall on Friday 4 December, bringing Puccini's Madama Butterfly to the Northgate Street venue. It's a homecoming of sorts for the company, and this production is one they've kept close to home: it's directed by their own Anne Williams-King, who also takes on the title role.
That double role is where the production gets its real weight. Williams-King has spent years singing the part of Cio-Cio-San on stages around the world, and she's now the one staging it. The company is leaning on that international experience, and the result is a beautifully traditional reading of the work. It's performed in its original Italian, without surtitles, so you'll be hearing the score as Puccini wrote it.
If you're not entirely familiar with the opera, you'll still recognise the big moments. The humming chorus is in there, as is the aria 'Un bel dì' ('One fine day'), the one that most people know even if they've never seen a full production. Those are the scenes that usually draw the crowd, and they're both part of the evening.
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On the musical side, Andrew Charity is the musical director, and the ensemble is SY1, led by Alex Postlethwaite. It's a full company effort, with Williams-King at the helm as both director and lead. Tickets are £30, and the performance starts at 19:30 at Chester Town Hall, Northgate Street, Chester, CH1 2HQ.
