Friday 10th February 2017, a day off from work today to watch the opening  night performance  of Madam Butterfly from the wonderful WNO, at the Wales Millenium Centre in Cardiff Bay. Another opera I’m really looking forward to, having seen this with the Ellen Kent company a few years ago, it will be good to see how the WNO handle this classic opera.

The cast for tonight’s performance  includes David Kempster as Sharpless. Karah Son playing Cio-Cio-San. Jonathan Burton as Pinkerton and Rebecca Afonwy-Jones as Suzuki. The magnificent WNO orchestra is conducted by Lawrence Foster. 

Another beautiful opera written by Puccini (as was La Boheme), and performed to perfection by this brilliant company. Karah Son is absolutely brilliant, such an amazing, beautiful voice, and a huge applause from a very appreciative audience as the curtain came down. Together with Jonathan Burton they make a great vocal pairing, so fabulous to listen to. The second act also gave us the fabulous voice of Rebecca as Suzuki and another chance to hear David Kempster with his Suberb vocal tones as well. As usual the singing from the chorus and the cast was also fabulous just a delight to sit in comfort and wallow in its brilliance.

The set looks stunning, so well thought out, fabulously designed and I must say built to perfection, with everything sliding into place without a fuss. Well worth another visit to this wonderful theatre for another showing.