Theatre Review: Madame Butterfly, The Grand Theatre and Opera House, Leeds

JAPAN is one of the most beautiful countries in the world and the people the most colourful and emotional.

Having just returned from a trip to the magical place, I was excited to watch a performance at The Grand Theatre in Leeds of Madame Butterfly, which encaptures Japan and its colour wonderfully through the dancing of the finest dancers from The Northern Ballet.

With wonderful scenery, emotional music and simply stunning dancing, this production had the lady infront of me crying as it was so beautifully done!

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The production tells the tale of Butterfly, sold by her father into the world of geisha, where she is again sold on to an American naval officer, believing she has married him.

She betrays her religion and adopts her husband’s Christian faith, committing herself to him forever. But the festivities are interrupted when a Japanese holy man arrives to denounce her. But defiant, Butterfly prepares for the wedding night and the next day waves her husband off as he sails away.

Butterfly finds she is pregnant and waits patiently for her husband to come home. But when he does, he has a wife in tow and Butterfly finally hands over the only thing she really loves, her child. Distraught, she then retreats back to her culture and uses her father’s Samurai sword to kill herself and free herself from the torment.

The production moves to The Palace Theatre in Manchester in September. It’s beautiful, so don’t miss it and especially support The Northern Ballet, the company needs you!

The ballet moves to The Palace Theatre in Manchester from September 25th to the 29th. Check www.northernballet.com/butterfly for more details.

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