Since 1996, the company has travelled more than 120,000km by road, air and sea around Australia – that’s three times the circumference of the Earth – visiting regional and remote communities.

This year it’s Tennant Creek’s turn to be on the company’s 11-week 2009 touring itinerary with the performance of Puccini’s much-loved opera Madame Butterfly.

Directed by one of Australia’s most renowned artists John Bell, Madame Butterfly is set in Nagasaki in 1946 and uses traditional Japanese design and modern Western influences of the time.

For those not familiar with the saga, it is based around US naval officer Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton, who undergoes a contract marriage to 15-year-old Japanese girl, Cio-Cio-San (aka Madame Butterfly).

Pinkerton abandons his fragile Butterfly, leaving her to cope on her own with a child and the disapproval of her family.

Then after three years he returns, having since remarried and unaware that he is a father.

His actions have tragic consequences for Madame Butterfly.

Considered one of the most popular and frequently performed operas in the world, the Oz Opera cast will perform Madame Butterfly in English to make it accessible to all people.

The production is accompanied by a chamber orchestra of 11 musicians, conducted by Chris Van Tuinen, and performed by a stellar cast of 11 opera singers including Jane Parkin and Elisa Wilson sharing the role of Madame Butterfly and David Corcoran and Jason Wasley alternating as the cad Pinkerton. The set and costume designs by the late Jennie Tate have been realised by Julie Lynch.

Director John Bell said he was honoured to be staging Madame Butterfly.

“It is a piece that does not necessarily need the resources of a large-scale production: it is a simple domestic tragedy about relatively humble people,” said Mr Bell.

“Hopefully, we will be able to demonstrate the truth of the adage that small is beautiful.”