Opera Scotland

Madam Butterfly 2015Ellen Kent Productions

Read more about the opera Madama Butterfly

The repertoire on this spring 2015 Ellen Kent tour, under the auspices of Opera and Ballet International, was as usual three popular favourites, in Madama Butterfly, Rigoletto and La traviata. No opera company was involved this time - the orchestra being assembled from two Moldovan bodies, the National Opera and Ballet Theatre and the National Philharmonic. The chorus was of unspecified origin.

The Scottish leg of the tour consisted of eight performances spread over four centres as follows:

Edinburgh Playhouse - 26 March Rigoletto, 27th Traviata, 28th Butterfly;

Glasgow Royal Concert Hall - 31 March Traviata, 1 April Butterfly;

Dundee Caird Hall - 2 April Butterfly;

His Majesty's Theatre Aberdeen - 10 April Rigoletto, 11 April Traviata.

Ellen Kent's traditional Butterfly production was much as before, with suggestions of a Japanese garden surrounding the fragile house of sliding panels. The excellent costumes for Butterfly and Suzuki were antique wedding kimonos. It all looked very pretty, and had the added advantage, when touring to a varied range of theatres and halls around the country, of not requiring any set changes using wings or a fly tower.

At the performance on 2 April, several of the performers were familiar. The condictor, Nicolae Dohotaru and the baritone Vladimir Dragos, an excellent Sharpless, have been touring with Butterfly since the turn of the century, and the impressive lyric tenor, Ruslan Zinevych, nearly as long, though he still looks and sounds remarkably youthful. The major novelty was a new Ukrainian soprano in the title role, revealing another well-schooled voice combined with good acting ability.