The prairie dresses, walled compounds and distrust of outsiders that were once hallmarks of two towns on the Arizona-Utah border are mostly gone.

The neighboring towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona, have transformed in the years since Warren Jeffs led a polygamous sect there.

As the leading lady of Arizona Opera’s production of “Madama Butterfly,” soprano Karen Chia-ling Ho said she is excited to be performing both with the company and in Tucson for her first time. Driven ...