Our final opera from Beijing’s National Center for the Performing Arts is this week’s Sunday Opera (10/23 3:00 p.m.) and is a contemporary work by Hao Weiya titled “A Village Teacher.”
The story of this interesting amalgamation of Western and Chinese music centers around the beloved teacher whose life is changed when she is abandoned by her love on their wedding day, but her relationship with her students blossoms until an ultimate sacrifice to ensure their safety. Zhang Yi conducts this all-Chinese cast and the NCPA Orchestra and Chorus and the Jinfan Chorus of Beijing No 171 Middle School.
Stay tuned after the opera for an afternoon of more contemporary Chinese music that also combines classical Chinese themes with Western influences. They include Kuan Nai-Ching’s “Memory of Mountain for Violin and Orchestra” featuring Chinese American violinist, Cho-Liang Lin, Bright Sheng’s “Never Far Away for Harp and Orchestra” written for and featuring harpist Yolanda Kondonassis, and Zhao Jiping’s “Silk Road Fantasia.”
It's an afternoon of familiarly unfamiliar music this week, and we hope you’ll tune in.