International Arts News: Asia’s Rise As An Opera Superpower - The Economist (06-02-2014) AO LI had never heard of opera until, switching on the television one day as a 13-year-old, he discovered Puccini’s Tosca. “I thought, ‘this is beautiful,’” he says. The thought stayed with him and later, when his high-school music teacher told him that he had a beautiful baritone voice, he decided to become an opera singer. Last year, aged 25, he won first prize in Plácido Domingos international Operalia competition for young singers. Mr Li (pictured performing in San Francisco) had the good fortune of growing up in a China that not only broadcasts Tosca, but is also actively promoting opera. Some 50 new opera houses have been completed or are near completion, and many more are planned. “Chinese people love foreign music, but in the past we couldn’t listen to it, explains Mr Li. “Now Western opera is getting more and more popular, and lots of young people want to become opera singers.” Advertisement Those young singers have ambitions beyond their own blossoming opera scene and are heading West, where there are “vastly more performance opportunities according to the casting director of the English National Opera, John McMurray. “Chinese singers are really coming along,” says Pal Christian Moe, the casting director at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. “There are so many good voices. Like Russian singers they benefit from a good musical education system.” The rise of Chinese singers is one of several eastern challenges to the primacy of traditional opera nations such as France and Italy. “In the past several years, we’ve seen a great influx of singers from Korea, eastern Europe, and now China as well,” says Mr McMurray. Some small and mid-sized European opera houses now rely on a cadre of Korean men. And at last year’s BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition, one of the 20 competitors was Chinese, two were South Korean and seven were from eastern Europe. There’s little mystery to the successes of countries from the former Eastern bloc. “It’s a direct result of the end of the Cold War,” explains Peter Gelb, the Metropolitan Opera’s general manager. “There’s an explosion of gifted singers from eastern Europe. There are three to four major stars from Latvia alone, and there’s a whole host of Russian singers wanting to follow in Anna Netrebko’s footsteps.” Opera has, of course, long been part of mainstream culture in Russia and other eastern European countries. But during the Cold War, opera singers’ international careers were harmed by the fact that authorities could bar trips on a whim. Today, by contrast, many singers maintain border-bending schedules similar to that of Sonya Yoncheva, a 32-year-old Bulgarian soprano who is singing leading roles in New York, Berlin and Munich this season. Back home, she reports, “there are many talented singers waiting to emerge.” South Korea’s ascent to opera superpower status has more to do with education. “When I was young, there was no one around me who worked in opera,” recalls Jihoon Kim, a bass and newly minted principal at the Royal Opera House. But he did enjoy singing in school choirs, and attributes his career to South Korea’s university system, where many performers maintain teaching posts. According to Mr Moe, South Korea’s success also derives from the tendency of families to sing at home and from their fascination with Western music. “Asian singers work very hard,” he adds. “Singers from the Far East and eastern Europe sometimes have a better work ethic than, say, French and Italian singers.” And many casting directors praise Korean and Chinese singers’ dramatic sound. “There must be something in their basic musical training,” reflects Mr McMurray. “Or is it in their physique? Or it could be that they have the will to achieve and are doing everything to achieve it, just like East Asian schoolchildren in the PISA tests.” Mr Li, for his part, is certain that China is at the beginning of an opera-singer export boom. He says that for young Chinese, it’s much easier to get a university place studying opera than maths: “And when you graduate, you’ll get a job more easily. Parents support this choice because it means you get to travel and work abroad.” And Western opera-lovers stand to benefit as well.
Posted on: Fri, 07 Feb 2014 00:59:39 +0000
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015