Vidar Hjardeng MBE - WNO Madam Butterfly, Audio Described Theatre Review

RNIB Connect Radio’s Toby Davey is joined again by Vidar Hjardeng MBE, Inclusion and Diversity Consultant for ITV News across England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands for the next in his regular Connect Radio audio described theatre reviews.

This week Vidar was reviewing the audio described performance of Welsh National Opera’s production of Puccini’s Madam Butterfly at the Birmingham Hippodrome on Saturday 23 April 2022 with audio description by professional Describers Julia Grundy and Jonathan Nash.

Madam Butterfly is a powerful story of unrequited love, human pain and suffering which is intensified by Puccini’s glorious music, promising a night of drama and emotion. Inspired by Puccini’s fantasy landscape of exotic pleasures, Lindy Hume’s new production interprets Butterfly’s famous story through a dystopian prism.

On the surface a dream-like wedding for a groom and his young, beautiful bride – but behind the façade is a cruel reality. Abandoned and betrayed, Butterfly finds her world crashing around her as her one chance for freedom becomes her prison. Her desperation and pain escalate as she fights for survival with devastating consequences.

Vidar began by telling Toby that the audio described performance of WNO’s Madam Butterfly was certainly an evening of drama and emotion for him. Vidar has seen a number of productions of Madam Butterfly but the WNO production was the best that he has seen so fa and it was for him almost like seeing Madam Butterfly for the first time. The beautiful singing and really good acting too that came through so well from Julia and Jonathan’s description. This was the first AD performance that Vidar has seen with a touch tour since the beginning of the Covid pandemic and although not a full touch tour on stage but the opportunity to explore some of the costumes and props including the marriage certificate and adoption certificate.

As Vidar is a big Puccini fan, with La Bohem being his favourite Puccini opera, Toby asked Vidar how Madam Butterfly compared to La Bohem.

Then Vidar and Toby talked about how some people might think that Opera is a bit elitist but that is certainly not the case with many companies such as WNO and of course with great audio description, introductory notes, touch tours and live audio description, a trip to the opera can make for a great, enjoyable theatrical experience.

To find out more about Welsh National Opera and their productions with audio description do visit the access pages of their website - https://wno.org.uk/access

(Image shows RNIB logo. 'RNIB' written in black capital letters over a white background and underlined with a bold pink line, with the words 'See differently' underneath)