Peter Lohdahl is the leading actor in Marco Polo and he can speak many languages, but he admits learning Chinese is a more difficult task.
"But this is an extremely difficult task. I didn't know about the intonations of the Chinese language, so this's been crazy to learn. Normally you would have a year, at least a year to learn a piece like this. But I got it (the script) in November, so that meant I have to prepare really fast in a period where we could not actually prepare."
A cast of international performers are featured in the opera, including singers from China, Denmark, Germany and the U.K. All the singing is in Mandarin Chinese as the performers vividly tell the stories of the Venetian explorer who traveled along the ancient Silk Road in the 13th century. Both English and Chinese subtitles are provided on the theater screens.
Peter Lohdahl is happy to find their opera is well received.
"This is what we also discovered in music---bringing a European opera to China with a Chinese text. And I'm happy to say that the Chinese understand it. I think the story is beautiful; we have really, really good reactions from the audience. We had a test audience in Beijing two days ago, and they are really happy about it."
It premiered in Guangzhou, a southern Chinese city in early May and will meet the Beijing audience on this Friday and Saturday.
For CRI, I'm Liu Min.
