Huang Ying, praised by music critics as the nightingale of China, sang at a concert last Friday at the Shanghai Grand Theatre.
To the accompaniment of the Shanghai Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai-born Huang sang arias from Mozart's "Titus" and "Ezio," Donizetti's "Don Pasquale," and Gounod's "Romeo and Juliet."
Her mellifluous voice and elegant figure won hearts and loud applause from the entire audience.
As a soprano, she has constantly been in the spotlight for the past decade. She captured the world's attention in the 1995 Frederic Mitterand film of Puccini's "Madame Butterfly."
She was selected for the title role from a field of 200 sopranos. Since then, Huang has embarked upon a career of concert and operatic engagements around the world.
Born into an ordinary family, Huang liked to sing songs in her childhood. Every weekend, she would go to the Children's Palace to practise her singing. "Those were the happiest days in my life," she recalled. Actually Huang was not a model student, but her active participation in parties made her popular among the teachers and other students.
After graduation from high school, Huang was admitted into the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and became a student in the Vocal Department. With a talent for foreign languages, Huang soon stood out among her classmates. Graduating from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 1992, she was introduced to the West when she was awarded the second prize at the 19th Concours International de Chant de Paris. "But this is in the past," she said. "Now I must work very hard to become a world-class soprano."
Huang has been working very hard. Over the past year, Huang has traveled around the world. She began her 2000-01 season singing Mahler's Second Symphony with the Madrid Symphony Orchestra. Next she will play Despina in Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte with the Michigan Opera Theatre before returning to China for a New Year's Eve concert in Beijing. Next year, she will go to the Nationale Reisopera in the Netherlands for performances of Pamina in the Magic Flute and then a solo recital in the United States.
"In the West, life is difficult for a Chinese soprano," she said. "Maybe someday, I will return to be a music coach."
As the years have passed, she says her love of Mozart's works has grown. "Mozart's work appears very simple, but they are difficult to sing well."
As a single woman in her 30s, Huang occasionally feels lonely because of her traveling life. "I long for a settled life," she said. "Sometimes I feel, to a woman, family life is more important than a career."
But currently she is preparing two operas "Don Pasquale" and "Magic Flute" for next year. "I love singing,” she said. "I can't imagine what life would be without singing."
(China Daily 04/11/2001)
