Madama Butterfly

In Coronation Scots, music by Vivian Ellis, which became a national favorite when it was attached to the Paul Temple radio series on the old home service.

All through the night, at her home in Nagasaki, Puccini's Madame Butterfly keeps watch for her American sailor husband, who's

walking around with your head in the clouds it makes no sense at all tell yourself short but you're walking so tall it makes no sense at all is it important yelling so loud it makes no sense at all walking around with your head in the clouds it makes no sense at all it makes no difference at all You wanna tell me when I'm right or when I'm wrong It's the same thing in your mind The only time I'm right is when I play along When I play along Walking around with your head in the clouds It makes no sense at all Set yourself short but you're walking so tall It makes no sense at all Is it important? You're yelling so loud It makes no sense at all Walking around with your head in the clouds It makes no sense at all There's no difference at all You concern yourself with evidence It's evident to me Well you say you've got the tiger by the tail But I don't see these things that way See these things that way Walking around with your head in the clouds It makes no sense at all You tell yourself short but you're walking so tall It makes no sense at all Is it important yelling so loud? It makes no sense at all Walking around with your head in the clouds It makes no sense at all It makes no difference at all It makes no sense at all It makes no sense at all Walking around with your head in the clouds It makes no sense at all

Some great covers there from a cool compilation, which is called, what was it called again? Oh, I said Head It.

Mm-hmm.

Obviously, a sort of reworking or reimagining of Puccini's Madame Butterfly, uh, as a Vietnam War love story.

[singing] The heat is on in Saigon.

That ran in London, I think, for 10 years.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Madame Butterfly.

Yeah, that's great.

And now I'm plum out of references.

It's not like just the filmed opera or anything.

It's a little bit more like that musical version they did of Madame Butterfly.

It's kind of like that.

They're all singing.

Hair blowing in the wind with all of the stuff going on.

And she was in her, like, Madame Butterfly dramatic operatic moment.

And I think that she, after that season, I think she really got inside of herself.

Like, yeah, I'm that housewife.

That's a reality of the situation, that if you can sing in Tosca, you've got a good chance of working.

If you can sing in Madame Butterfly, or you can sing in La Boheme, or Magic Flute, or Carmen, you know, the greatest hit shows.

If you've got roles in there...

You can probably work more.

Yeah.

So she makes a reference that she hopes that it's not Madam Butterfly, which is a reference to... nightmares the season one nightmares

yeah because she's

remember she's like singing in front of everybody madame butterfly season one oh

Julius Ketchin on the piano with On Wings of Song.

The humming chorus from Madam Butterfly is played for us by James Last's orchestra.

MUSIC PLAYS so so Thank you.

¦ ¦ ¦ ¶¶ so so ¶¶ Thank you.

Thank you.

The humming chorus from Madam Butterfly was played by James Last's orchestra.

You're with Radio Southland on 96.4 FM and it's light, bright and classical and we're back on the piano with Pavel Kolesnikov and he plays for us Debussy's The Sunken Cathedral.

you . . . Amen.