About Me
Opera singer, Actress and Butcher - Buddug Verona James was born in Cardigan, Ceredigion, West Wales.Buddug worked with her siblings for ten years in the family butchery business in Cardigan before pursuing her operatic career and won an award for her meat manipulation at the Royal Welsh show in 1978. (She returned to the Royal Welsh in 2006 to teach Ray Gravell how to tie sausages).Buddug's break came when she received a scholarship from the Welsh Arts Council to study with Maestro d'Angelo in Rome and Noelle Barker at the Guildhall in London.In 1986, Buddug sang at the Glyndebourne Festival and studied at the National Opera Studio .Buddug made her European debut as Hermia for the Netherlands Opera, directed by Brigitte Fassbaender. She has performed all over the world in over forty operatic roles.She has premiered in operas by Gerald Barry, Jonathan Dove, Deirdre Gribbin, Wolfgang Rihm and John Woolrich.Buddug is a Welsh Singer’s Competition Winner. She has also undertaken various acting roles for BBC, HTV, S4C and Theatr Genedlaethol Gymru (National Theatre of Wales).In 2001, Buddug premiered Castradiva - a one-woman show based on the fictional life of a castrato which featured arias by Handel and Gluck. The production premiered at Theatr Mwldan in Cardigan and subsequently toured Croatia, Ireland and Wales performing in numerous music festivals including Buxton, Gower, Tudeley, Beaumaris and Edinburgh.Buddug comes from a talented family. Her two sisters Eirian and Elin, and brother Dilwyn are also performers and they have performed together since childhood. The James Family performed before a capacity audience of 72,000 at the Millennium Stadium before the Wales v Ireland match in 2001.
In August 2001, Buddug and her sister Eirian were awarded the highest accolade of Y Wisg Wen (the White Robe) at the National Eisteddfod and S4C commissioned a 60 minute documentary on the James Family which was broadcast in 2002.In 2006, Buddug premiered a new one-woman show at Theatr Mwldan in Cardigan, A Knife at the Opera written and directed by Chris Harries. Inspiration for the show came from a particularly fierce review which Buddug received from an opera critic. The Irish baritone Joe Corbett reminded her of the hammer horror film Theatre of Blood where a Shakespearean actor murders all his critics! The comic story intertwines seven arias as Buddug takes on the role of six suspect divas and Welsh Clouseau DI Gethin Gumshoe.Buddug is also a vocal tutor at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and has directed several of the institution's productions.Recordings available from www.buddug.co.uk Thomas Chilcot songs with Andrew Wilson-Dickson and the Welsh Baroque Orchestra (Meridian CDE84428), Arias by Handel and Gluck featured in Castradiva (Fflach CD237L), The James Sisters sing Gospel (Fflach CD258H) and a NEW RELEASE Caneuon y Werin/Songs of the People - Folk Songs from the British Isles and America arranged by Haydn, Howells, Tate, Wilson-Dickson, Pwyll ap Sion, James MacMillan and Jonathan Dove (Fflach CD295H).
