Italian veteran gets into the act in La Gioconda

As an early afternoon rehearsal in a vast studio at the National Center for the Performing Arts gets underway, a tall, gray-haired man shows up, grabbing everyone's attention. The man, wearing a bright yellow scarf, sits down and then addresses the assembled actors.

"We're going to do the first act, the Carnival of Venice," he says.

Pier Luigi Pizzi, Italian opera director, and set and costume designer, is in Beijing, working an elaborate new production of La Gioconda, which will be staged at the NCPA in Beijing Jan 27-31.