CHINA’S opera world has high hopes for “The River of Spring,” which makes its world premiere tonight at Shanghai Grand Theater as the opening show for the monthlong 2014 Shanghai International Arts Festival.

The original opera is uncommon in that it features a Western style, songs in Mandarin and a Chinese story.

“River” is based on the popular Chinese film “The River Flows to the East” from 1947 in which a patriotic young man becomes corrupted by money and beautiful women.

The all-star team behind it includes composer Hao Weiya, director Yi Liming and groups of opera singers from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Zhou Xiaoyan Opera Theater and Shanghai Opera House. Well-known Chinese tenor Wei Song, baritone Liao Changyong and coloratura soprano Huang Yin all star in it.

Perhaps most surprisingly of all is its artistic director, 98-year-old Zhou Xiaoyan, a soprano and opera educator.

She feels as though they have made a great opera that will find an audience beyond the die-hard enthusiasts.

Despite her advanced age, Zhou has no intention of slowing down.

“I’m in my 90s and I just finished the first half of my game about performing on stage and cultivating young opera singers,” she says. “I am very much looking forward to the second half in which I will dedicate myself to creating good original Chinese operas. I think we just achieved something great with ‘The River of Spring’ and we will keep going.”

Composer Hao says the story is deep with “infinite possibilities” to create an opera. The complex characters and dramatic conflicts give plenty of space for baritone, bass, coloratura soprano, lyric soprano and mezzo soprano within the opera, he says.

“River” is just the first of a planned Shanghai opera trilogy, according to baritone Liao. Also the vice president of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Liao says the group will work on two more original operas including “Sunrise,” based on the novel by Cao Yu, and “Family,” which will be adapted from a Ba Jin novel.

“We hope we can make the best operas that will be performed at important opera houses,” says Liao. “Good or not, it depends on whether critics and spectators like it.”

Opera, as a Western art form entering China in the early 20th century, has always been a minority art within the country due to cultural differences.

Though there are quite a number of top Chinese opera performers recognized worldwide, original Chinese operas are still uncommon.

“Speaking of Chinese operas, many people still think of traditional theaters, not Chinese creations of Western-style operas,” says Wang Yong, a professor withthe Shanghai Conservatory of Music.

Even though numerous theaters have popped up across the country within the past 20 years, only a few number of opera works are staged regularly. Wang says a maximum of 10 operas are staged in Shanghai every year.

Qian Shijin, artistic director of Shanghai Grand Theater, also admits they have failed to develop the opera market compared with that for symphony and ballet.

Cultural preferences are inevitably a major reason for the slow market development.

“Opera is a complicated art form that requires a long education to appreciate — even in Europe. So from that perspective it’s not surprising few Chinese understand and enjoy it,” Professor Wang says.

However, there is hope within the opera circle that they are moving in the right direction.

Successful creations like “Poet Li Bai,” composed by Guo Wenjin in 2007, and “King of Chu,” “Xi Shi,” “Thunderstorm,” “Song of Farewell” and “National Anthem” — created by Shanghai Opera House from 2009 to 2013 — seem to be ushering in a new era of original Chinese operas in the Western style.

Though many trace the history of modern Chinese opera back to the 1940s and “The White-Haired Girl,” it’s only in the past 20 years that Chinese operas have become more “opera-like” with international standards, Wang says.

Frequent exchanges between China and the West since Deng Xiaoping’s reform policy has allowed Chinese opera performers with overseas stage experience to work with local artists.

Zhou says this is vital.

“Art can never develop without communication. Only by communicating with artists overseas can we realize what we lack and thus work to improve,” she says.

Some say complicated Chinese phonetic tones are an obstacle in original opera creation as it makes it difficult to match the words with music. But Zhou believes singing in Chinese is the ideal way to share a Chinese story.

“Every language has its own features, so does Chinese. I don’t think it make sense to say that a particular language is not suitable for a certain type of music, but there are cases where composers have failed to make the music work with the language,” she says.

Zhang Guoyong, director of Shanghai Opera House, says simply doing adaptations of Western operas will not lead to true creativity. Thus creating operas based on Chinese stories are the way forward.

Most original Chinese operas have been based on historical stories or classic literature, which is also the case for the planned Shanghai opera trilogy. Zhang says basing operas on well-known stories may help attract new fans and build a bigger market.

Composer Hao adds that developing an original Chinese opera is difficult because it requires creativity, a mature performance team and a quality theater.

Shanghai, in his opinion, is one of the few cities in China capable of producing such operas.

“A friend of mine once said that the opera industry in China today is just like the movie industry 10 years ago — abundant theaters yet few creators that you can name,” Hao says. “But considering where the movie industry is now and the changes already happening in the opera industry, we should remain optimistic.”

 

“The River of Spring”

Date: October 18, 7:30pm

Venue: Shanghai Grand Theater, 300 People’s Ave

There are only a few tickets left, please go to the theater’s ticket office.