Passing the baton

The symphony orchestra of the Xiamen Song and Dance Troupe and the Xiamen Opera Philharmonic Chorus were a few days away from performing La Traviata, an opera in three acts by Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi. They were ready to present a Chinese version in Xiamen, Fujian province, produced by the Zheng Xiaoying Opera Center, which was founded by 93-year-old conductor Zheng Xiaoying.

However, this time, the conductor, who was going to take the baton to perform with the symphony orchestra and the chorus for La Traviata, was not Zheng. It was 77-year-old Wu Lingfen, one of Zheng's students.

On Nov 25 and 26, the opera was performed for two sold-out nights. Wu and Zheng, who is the artistic director of the opera production, worked side by side during the rehearsals, which were not only for the opera, but also for a teacher-and-student reunion.

While Wu played in the orchestra pit, Zheng was behind her, giving Wu suggestions for dealing with the music and inspiring the symphony orchestra and chorus to work with the conductor.

"It feels like that I am in a class with her again. She always encourages me and gives me great advice," says Wu, who received a gift from Zheng — a brand-new baton — during the rehearsals.

It was the first time that Wu conducted an opera produced by the Zheng Xiaoying Opera Center, which was established on Jan 11 by Zheng and is headquartered in Xiamen.

The first private nonprofit art institution in China devoted to producing operas and promoting young opera talent, the center was conceived about 10 years ago.

"We held hands together when we walked into the theater to do rehearsals and she introduced me to the young singers who were going to perform in the opera," Wu adds. The opera featured some rising tenors and sopranos, including Gu Wenmeng and Guo Wei.

La Traviata was one of the first Western operas staged in China. It premiered in the country in 1956, and Zheng, who was the principal conductor of the China National Opera House at the time, has conducted the opera more than 160 times since. It was also one of the first Western operas to be adapted into Chinese. Zheng participated in the adaptation personally. In 2011, she brought the Chinese version of La Traviata to Xiamen and, in 2020, she presented the arias of the opera with a concert, also held in Xiamen.

On Aug 27 and 28, another student of Zheng's, conductor Gao Song, led the Fuzhou Strait Symphony Orchestra in Fujian province and the Xiamen Opera Philharmonic Chorus to perform the Chinese version of La Traviata. Zheng introduced the opera and guided the audience to help them better understand it on social media platform, Douyin, on Aug 27. This attracted more than 3 million viewers.

"Performing Western operas in Chinese with Chinese singers brings the Western art form closer to domestic audiences. What we are trying to do is to find the most accurate translation for the libretto, as well as using proper Chinese words that go well with the music," Zheng says.

Zheng has been credited with introducing opera and classical music to Xiamen. In 1998, she founded the Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2000, Zheng and the Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra premiered The Echoes of Hakka's Earth Buildings, which is an original Chinese music piece, in Fujian's Longyan city. Composed by Liu Yuan, it pays tribute to the history and lives of the Hakka people. So far, Zheng has led the symphony in the performance of the music piece about 80 times in over 12 countries and regions.

For Wu, who has been devoted to conducting choral singing for decades, she had not conducted an opera for a long time. She says that the process of preparing for conducting the opera took her back to her youth.

She also notes that Zheng has been supportive of her ideas about choral singing as a teacher and a friend.

Born in Shanghai in 1929, Zheng is the first female opera and symphony conductor in China. As one of the most famous Chinese conducting professors, Zheng has taught many famed musicians, including Zhang Xian, music director of the New Jersey Symphony.

In the early 1960s, Zheng was sent to the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory to study conducting. On Oct 1, 1961, she conducted her first orchestral concert in Moscow, which she dedicated to the 12th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. The following year, she conducted Italian composer Giacomo Puccini's opera, Tosca, in the Russian capital, becoming the first Chinese conductor to perform at an international opera house.

In 1964, she returned to China to teach at the Central Conservatory of Music, where she became Wu's teacher.

Wu's father was a priest and Wu listened to lots of music in church and learned piano as a child. Her music talent was recognized by Zheng. "Wu is creative and full of ideas, which I love very much," says Zheng.

Like her mentor, from 1986 to 1988, Wu was sent to study at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory. It was there that she became interested in choral singing, which was supported by Zheng.

When Wu taught conducting at the China Conservatory of Music in 1998, she initiated the idea of training conductors from choral singing. She let students sing at chorus and conduct the chorus themselves.

Now, Wu is a professor of the China Conservatory of Music's conducting department and works as the conductor of the NCPA Chorus, the resident chorus of the National Centre for the Performing Arts.

During the 16th China International Chorus Festival, Wu, the festival's artistic director, invited Zheng to be the guest conductor and honorary president of the event's arts committee. From July 16 to 20, the festival, held online, featured over 530 choirs from 52 countries and regions, as well as over 30,000 choral singing enthusiasts.

"I am happy that I am still able to learn and work with Zheng," says Wu.