Opera adaptation hits high note at London premiere

Being a British performer who can sing in Mandarin means Lavender, who teaches at London's Royal College of Music, has more Chinese than European students.

To be allowed to oversee the piece's premiere was, he says, "a real honor and privilege".

"It's performed in English, but four of the main characters are Chinese," he says. "Our mezzo-soprano is Polish and in one scene has to sing in Mandarin, which she worked very hard to get right, and at one point so do the chorus, which was a lot of fun."

Lavender also praises Hong Ying's writing. She has written about a boy living on the banks of the Yangtze River in the late 1970s, and there's a fairytale element with a statue coming to life and traveling back in time, so it combines the birth of modern China with traditional tales, he says.

Although the piece is mainly in English and is written by a British composer, Smith now lives in China, so the work's Chinese roots are very apparent.

"It's a wonderfully stimulating project with a lot of pentatonic melody running through it," says Lavender.

For those who listen closely, there is a hidden musical reference very specific to the time and place that the story is set in.

"Years ago, composer Xian Xinghai wrote a recruitment song for the Chinese Army, which Nick has woven into a chorus," he says. "It will pass a lot of people by, but if you joined the army in the 1970s, you will know it."