Norwegian and Chinese musicians will jointly perform a concert under the baton of British conductor Nicholas Smith at Beijing's Century Theatre on Sunday evening.
With the theme of the interaction between Eastern and Western cultures, the concert -- entitled The Pilgrim -- is about a Western pilgrim who travels to China, where he encounters the culture, music and spirituality of the East.
The score is by Norwegian composer Sigvald Tveit and the libretto by Harald Olsen. Since its 1997 premiere in Hong Kong, the work has been performed in the United States and in the Philippines.
The Beijing concert will feature the China Film Symphony Orchestra, Beijing Baroque Chamber Choir and the China Conservatory of Music student chorus. Olsen, also a leading baritone in Norway, will sing alongside Chinese soprano Zhang Gengwei.
Olsen, 57, is the project's initiator. He wrote the libretto in Chinese and Norwegian, with parts in English.
Tveit is a versatile and prolific composer. His score of The Pilgrim draws musical elements from both Norwegian and Chinese traditional music.
He lets tunes from the nine-stringed Norwegian Hardanger violin meet the sounds of traditional Chinese instruments such as the dizi (bamboo flute), erhu (two-stringed fiddle), pipa (a plucked stringed instrument with a fretted fingerboard), sheng (Chinese mouth organ), yangqin (dulcimer) and zheng (a zither-like instrument).
Gunnar Stubseid, 54, will play the Hardanger violin, which is Norway's national instrument. Stubseid is director of the Ole Bull Academy in the town of Voss, an institution whose aim is to preserve Norway's rich folk music heritage and teach it to students.
(China Daily December 13, 2002)
