| The director of oscar-nominated films hero and the house of flying dagger is to stage a new production at the metropolitan opera in new york. |
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The director of Oscar-nominated films Hero and The House of Flying Dagger is to stage a new production at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Zhang Yimou will direct the historical epic The First Emperor, scored by Chinese -American composer Tan Dun and starring Placido Domingo in the title role.
Zhang becomes the first Chinese director to helm an opera at the Met. The first emperor is a fictionalised history of the founding of China, based on the film The Emperor's Shadow by Zhou Xiaowen.It tells of an emperor who commissions a childhood friend to write an anthem for the newly unified China. The libretto for Zhang's opera is by the novelist Ha Jin. Costumes are by Emi Wada, who has designed outfits for Zhang's films and for Peter Greenway and Akira Kurosawa. Zhang has previously directed a production of Turandot, in 1998, at the Forbidden City in Beijing Opera
. They like it but they don't understand it." According to Sarah Billinghurst, assistant artistic manager at the Met,Zhang "may not have extensive opera experience.But he did Raise the Red Lantern as a ballet. He has a lot of theatrical experience, and that's important. "And his films are incredibly operatic in the way they're directed and the way they look. Like his films ,this opera is not going to be static
.It's a real story with real characters. And it will look gorgeous." Met staff are currently taking Chinese lessons ,says Billinghurst: Zhang does not speak english. The first emperor is the first modern opear written for Placido Domingo at the Met, where he has sung most of his wide repertoire of roles. It will tour the US after its New York premiere in December. It is also rumoured that the opera will be staged at the Great Wall of China in 2008. |
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| Posted on : 24/2/2006 |
