Friday 31 March 2017

Theatre 2017: Review Thirteen - Madama Butterfly

Madama Butterfly, Royal Opera House, London. March 2017.

It hasn't been that long since I saw the Glyndebourne version of this opera and fell in love with it but when I saw it was going to be on at the ROH I knew I wanted to go again, and this time with my mum and dad. It seemed like we out of luck at first because the tickets we wanted initially sold out before I could get to the website.

After much discussion and checking of the website we decided to risk the £20 seats in the upper ampitheatre - this showed great bravery on mum's part as they were incredibly high up!

We saw the first performance of this opera at a midday matinee and it was wonderful, the staging was simple, sliding doors and lighting conveyed everything needed and the costumes were traditional kimonos for the Japanese roles contrasting with the western dress of Pinkerton and the consul.

Despite being so high up the view was incredible, we couldn't see facial expressions but we could see everything that happened on the stage as well as having a really clear view of the surtitles. The sound was also brilliant, the music and voices just soared up to us.

This was another production where time flew as we were watching it and by the end we were emotional wrecks and totally wrung out - we'd never have known that this was a first performance and we are now avidly scanning the ROH brochure to see what else we can book for these bargain seats!

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