'Finding Butterfly' at Limehouse Town Hall from October 2012 (a Soho Theatre production)

Based on music and characters from Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, The Wedding Collective’s site-specific event will again explore, through powerful drama and searing music, one of the most iconic stories of the 20th Century – but in a radical piece of guerilla theatre.

The show features a professional cast from Japan, Ukraine, Lithuania, Poland and China working alongside a chorus of London refugees, asylum seekers and new migrants.

To be performed, in October 2012, in English, Japanese and Italian – with surtitles – at Limehouse Town Hall.

Further details can be found here.

The Japanese mezzosoprano Megumi Shiozaki studied singing at the Musashino College of Music in Tokyo and completed the graduate course in 2008. From 2008 to 2011 she was a member of the Opera Studio of the New National Theatre in Tokyo. Here she performed as Frugola Il Tabarro, Zita Gianni Schicchi, Quickly Falstaff, Maddalena Rigoletto, Mother Marie Dialogues des Carmelites, Sonyetka Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. She has been granted the 2011-2012 Fellowship by the Japanese Government Overseas Study Programme for Artists, which sends young artists of proven talent abroad. She began her studies in Berlin in 2011. She sings as Maddalena Rigoletto sponsored by Opera Classica Europa in Germany in August 2012.

You can keep up with her blog here.

Andy Tang, currently second-year student of Japanese at Sheffield University, has translated Megumi’s first entry.

はじめまして、塩崎めぐみです。この度、’Finding Butterfly’ で、Suzuki役とOld Suzuki役を演じさせて頂きます。

このBlogでは、稽古場の雰囲気や私自身が感じたことなどを、ささやかながら皆さんにお伝え出来ればと思っています。

Blogを書くこと自体、私にとって初めての体験で、ちょっとドキドキしていますが、楽しんで頂ければ幸いです。どうぞ宜しくお願い致します！

稽古は、昨日、9月10日から本格的に始まりました。指揮者のAndrewの音楽稽古から始まり、演出家のSteveの演技の稽古、衣装・セットのデザイナーのZahraの舞台の概要説明など盛沢山!!

稽古は午前中から夕方まで、行っているのですが、本当に充実した時間です。

既に今から、本番がどんな風になるのか、ワクワクです♪

写真は、指揮者のAndrew。プッチーニへの愛が伝わってくる熱のこもった音楽指導です.

How do you do? My name is Megumi Shiozaki. This October I will be playing the role of Suzuki and Old Suzuki in Finding Butterfly.

In this blog I will try to convey as much as I can to everyone about the atmosphere of the training hall and my own impressions of what is going on.

I’m slightly nervous as this is the first time I’ve ever written a blog, so please be kind! I’ll be really happy if you enjoy what I write.

The full rehearsal started on the 10th September. We had a music rehearsal with Andrew, the conductor and an acting rehearsal with Steve, the director. Zahra, the set designer, told us her concept for the stage. It’s been a lot to take in!

Rehearsals start in the morning and continue until the evening; it’s a really fruitful time. I am already excited about performing in front of an audience.

This photo is of the conductor, Andrew. His conducting is passionate and infused with a love of Puccini.