Last December I had the wonderful opportunity of directing and singing in the first Western Opera ever presented in Guiyang, China.
The opera presented was Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro. The singers were young faculty members at Guizhou Normal University and several young professionals, plus myself.
The opera presented was Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro. The singers were young faculty members at Guizhou Normal University and several young professionals, plus myself.
Working in China is sometimes daunting, and the weeks leading up to the rehearsals were a bit frustrating as I didn't get much information: I didn't know how much music they were planning on presenting.
Imagine my concern when I arrived and over the first three days of rehearsals found that only 60% of the music, and the only the standard recitative lead-ins to arias would be sung.
They asked me to create dialogues to bind the musical scenes and story together. Well, this was a challenge. The first four days I went home and was writing several dialogues in English, which I emailed to a wonderful young Chinese flutest who spoke great English. She then translated them into Chinese and sent them on to the Chinese conductor, who would print them out and bring them to the morning rehearsal.
We would then add local idioms and humour to spice up the recits. We even ended up having a fun 'tai chi' theme for the distraught Countess throughout the show. In the end it went very well and the audience was engaged throughout.
It certainly kept me on my toes, having to produce the dialogues on the fly!
Imagine my concern when I arrived and over the first three days of rehearsals found that only 60% of the music, and the only the standard recitative lead-ins to arias would be sung.
They asked me to create dialogues to bind the musical scenes and story together. Well, this was a challenge. The first four days I went home and was writing several dialogues in English, which I emailed to a wonderful young Chinese flutest who spoke great English. She then translated them into Chinese and sent them on to the Chinese conductor, who would print them out and bring them to the morning rehearsal.
We would then add local idioms and humour to spice up the recits. We even ended up having a fun 'tai chi' theme for the distraught Countess throughout the show. In the end it went very well and the audience was engaged throughout.
It certainly kept me on my toes, having to produce the dialogues on the fly!
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