Peter Savidge News

This year’s award-winning production, which continues performances through until Monday 23rd December, has already been seen by 112,000 visitors from all over the world (including guests from as far as Texas) who have flocked to the tiny Norfolk village for this annual festive treat.  

Australian soprano Antoinette Halloran won the praise of critics and audiences in 2008 when she performed the role of Mimi in New Zealand Opera's production of La boheme. Next month she's back on New Zealand stages to sing what she describes as 'the most demanding yet most beautiful soprano role ever created,' the role of Cio-Cio San (Butterfly) in NZ Opera's new production of Madame Butterfly.

Australian soprano Antoinette Halloran won the praise of critics and audiences in 2008 when she performed the role of Mimi in New Zealand Opera's production of La boheme. Next month she's back on New Zealand stages to sing what she describes as 'the most demanding yet most beautiful soprano role ever created,' the role of Cio-Cio San (Butterfly) in NZ Opera's new production of Madame Butterfly.

Aidan Lang, General Director of NZ Opera, has put the company's new production in the hands of award-winning Australians, director Kate Cherry and designer Christina Smith. "Kate's productions are always striking," Lang says, "and this one will be no exception. Kate hasn't been tempted to meddle with the essence of Madame Butterfly or stamp her mark on it by modernising it or changing the setting. So Puccini's classic will remain as the composer conceived it: a timeless tale of love and loss set in the Japanese city of Nagasaki around the turn of last century."