Ziyi Zhang (章子怡) at "The First Emperor" Premiere
Ziyi Zhang (章子怡) will introduce the live transmission at the Metropolitan Opera in New York city for the opera "The First Emperor".
The title role of "The First Emperor" is sung by Placido Domingo, who in the 80s displayed his celebrated tenor in movie versions of "Cavallieri Rusticana", "Pagliacci", "La Traviata" and "Otello", all directed by Franco Zeffirelli. Tan Dun (谭盾) is the composer who had won an Oscar for his scoring of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (卧虎藏龙)", would do with his epic subject. It is staged by Zhang Yimou (张艺谋), director of many sublime Chinese dramas, including "Hero (英雄)", the worldwide martial arts hit for which Tan Dun had supplied the music. The costumes are by Emi Wada, who worked with Zhang on "Hero" and "House of Flying Daggers (十面埋伏)". The opera is based on a 1996 Chinese movie, "The Emperor's Shadow (秦颂)".
Ziyi Zhang (章子怡) introduced the event from the Metropolitan Opera staircase, the Crouching Tiger star who was discovered by Zhang Yimou.
"The Emperor's Shadow" dramatizes an episode in the legend of the warlord who united the disparate Chinese tribes in 310 B.C. and ordered the erection of what would become the Great Wall. (Zhang told another fable of the first Emperor in "Hero".)
"The Emperor's Shadow" covers some 30 years in the lives of two boys: a sturdy kid who will become the Emperor and his sensitive friend who will become the musician Gao Jianli (高渐离) — think Jimmy Cagney and Pat O'Brien in "Angels With Dirty Faces". Both are suckled by Jianli's mother and raised as brothers. When they're 10, they're separated for pursue their different and colliding destinies. In maturity, the warlord (played with a bull-headed majesty by Jiang Wen or 姜文), China's leading movie actor) hears than Jianli (Ge You or 葛优), a stalwart of several Zhang Yimou films) is enslaved by a rival clan; he sends one of his lieutenants to defeat the clan and return with Jianli. He needs a theme song, and desperately wants the musician to compose an anthem for him. But Jianli is a stubborn sort, not easily bossed by his childhood friend; and he complicates things by having a liaison with the warlord's strong-willed, crippled daughter Yueyang (Xu Qing or 许晴), who had been promised to the lieutenant. Think any number of Victorian melodramas.
Source: Time
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