China's internationally acclaimed film director Zhang Yimou will work with Oscar-winning composer Tan Dun to debut a historical opera of ancient China The First Emperor at the New York Metropolitan Opera House on December 21 this year.

 

The opera, a historical pageant, will depict the life of China's first emperor Qin Shi Huang after he unifies the country in 221 B.C. and then loses the land and the people for his tyranny.

 

It marks the first time that the 150-year-old opera house to work with a Chinese director and the third cooperation between the directing talent and Tan Dun, also conductor of the musical.

 

Zhang, known for his movies like Hero and House of Flying Daggers, made his operatic debut directing Puccini's Turandot at the Forbidden City in Beijing in 1998.

 

"The cooperation (of The First Emperor) represents not only Sino-American cultural exchange, but an opportunity to demonstrate Chinese artistic talent on a best western stage," said Zhang.

 

One of the world's biggest singing voices, Placido Domingo, will sing the title role of China's great leader who unifies the country in 221 B.C., but sacrifices the happiness of his daughter, Princess Yue-yang, to be portrayed by Elizabeth Futral and Sarah Coburn.

 

The tenor is expected to wrap up his singing career after the show.

 

In the opera, the Emperor also forsakes his dear friend, a composer, Gao Jian-li, sung by Paul Groves, whom he forces to create music for the unveiling of his great achievement, the Great Wall.

 

"My directing principle is to tone in with Tan Dun's music. I'll adopt dichotomy to demonstrate his (the emperor's) historic achievements and faults while probing into the loneliness as a king deep in his mind," said Zhang.

 

Zhang is thought to have assembled a strong creative Chinese team for the opera including his old partners Wang Chaoge and Fan Yue, who cooperated with Zhang on his first ever foray into musicals, Impression Liu Sanjie.

 

According to Fan Yue, Chinese factors like the Great Wall and terracotta warriors and horses will be incorporated in stage design "not in a simply replicated way but placed in interlaced spaces".

 

The Met has praised Fan for his stage effect, saying it is unique and unprecedented.

 

As a sign of Zhang's return to his trademark grand-cinema directing style, the opera will encompass diverse ways of expression, including those used in movie making, like adding singing of Peking Opera and placing ancient Chinese vases and musical instruments on the stage.

 

Zhang voice the hope that the opera will suit both refined and popular tastes and draw more young westerners to the opera house and understand Chinese history.

 

But it is no easy job to produce a Chinese opera in a way acceptable to Westerners. Zhang says he himself has no knowledge about music composition or English, "chewing on" an English libretto translated into Chinese time and time again is his daily work.

 

But Zhang was optimistic. "My understanding of opera is like how foreigners look at Beijing (Peking) opera. Love it but have no deep understanding. To attract more young audience, we need creative stage elements more than good music."

 

During rehearsals, a question was frequently raised among team members: "Did you doze off?" -- a criterion to assess the opera's attractiveness.

 

Zhang dismissed worries whether Western actors can play in a Chinese story, saying "Opera has the charm of music to transcend everything. No one will care too much about actor's image and the language he uses."

 

The opera is scheduled to be on show five or six times at the Met and all the tickets have been sold out before touring around opera houses around the United States.

 

It is expected to come to Chinese audiences at a more imposing venue -- the Great Wall -- in 2008.

 

(Xinhua News Agency February 15, 2006)