Last month, Tian Haojiang, a Beijing born opera singer who's been with the Metropolitan Opera House of New York for 14 years, held a solo recital in his hometown and received a warm reception. During the performance, bass singer Tian quoted a sentence from the New York Times, which says that the future of classical music lies partly in China. However, before such heart-stirring predications can come true, there are some problems that opera in China must first face.

The singer has appeared in over 20 roles and in every season at the Metropolitan Opera House since he began there. Internationally he has been highly praised for his various performances in the opera houses of Italy, France and Germany.

At the Beijing concert, the singer sang arias from a number of different operas: Verdi's Don Carlos, Rossini's The Barber of Seville, Verdi's Nabucco, Handel's Joshua and also Gounod's Faust. Excepting a few classic folk songs, there wasn't much in the way of Chinese music. Tian said that he had longed to sing some Chinese compositions but had failed to find one suitable for him.

This situation makes opera's position in China somewhat awkward. Over the past years, few operas have appeared on the domestic stage. Of the handful of operas that have been staged, western classics have taken up a large proportion of time including Verdi's La Traviata, Puccini's Turandot and Madama Butterfly, and Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro. According to Liu Shirong, a famous music critic and former president of China's Central Opera House, the general level of opera singing in China is fairly good and can even claim to be the best in Asia. On the international stage, Chinese composers like Tan Dun and Qu Xiaogang have won a certain amount of popularity, even with the picky audiences of European countries like Italy and France. And some great Chinese singers, after years of diligent work, have also put on good performances at some major western opera houses. These singers include the above mentioned Tian Haojiang and alto singer Dai Yuqiang, to name just a few. The latter sang the lead role in Puccini's Tosca at the British Royal Opera House last month and is the first Chinese alto to have sung a leading role at this prestigious venue. Both Tian Haojiang and Dai Yuqiang have the experience of cooperating with world acclaimed singers like Pavorotti and Domingo.

But, despite this international success, operas in China have shown little signs of prosperity. Excepting a few well-known arias, western classical opera largely remains an inaccessible high-brow art for most Chinese, as they can understand neither the Italian lyrics nor the bel canto style of singing. As for indigenous Chinese-penned opera, few have successfully struck a chord with the audience. This predicament has resulted in sluggish box office takings, which in turn hinders the development of opera. Liu Shirong calls it a vicious circle which is hard for the domestic opera market to shake off.

It hasn't always been this way for the domestic market. Decades ago, both western compositions and Chinese ones could command large audiences. Verdi's La Traviata staged over 500 performances around China, and original Chinese operas, such as "the White Haired Girl" and "Sister Jiang," were so popular that even today people can hum the arias from these homegrown hits. However, at the present time, despite modern stage effects and decor, there are scarcely any Chinese-composed operas gaining the praise of the general public. And over the past several years, no opera has managed to stay on the stage for over 100 performances. The appreciation of opera remains largely a past-time for music professionals.

Liu Shirong said that the current situation could be attributed to many reasons, from opera production and promotion, to opera house management and the singers' performances. In the west, the process of making and marketing opera is like a perfected organic system. But in China, many questions still remain under discussion, of which the greatest is how the opera market should operate. "We have to invest a lot into an opera before it is finally staged. The production cost is very high, with great demands on our time in order to finish a production. When it comes to be staged, we have to think about the venue and the musical season. When it comes to nationwide tours, it is even harder to put our ideas into practice," said Liu.

The high costs of production and rental of venues contribute to soaring ticket prices. In China, middle-income people going to an opera have to give up one-third or even a half of their monthly salary for one ticket. The ticket price of opera in China is almost the same as that in western countries, begging the question, "Can many Chinese people really afford such luxurious enjoyment?" Liu Shirong suggests for a reasonable ticket pricing scheme.

"The highest price shouldn't exceed one-tenth of a person's average monthly salary, say 80 yuan or 100 yuan. And the lowest price should be one-tenth or one-twentieth of the top ticket price."

Yet whatever the pricing policy, the fact is that the box office takings can hardly cover production costs, and especially the venue rental, as most opera companies in China don't have their own theatres. The whole operation of opera production very much follows that of pop concerts. But unlike the profitable outcome of the latter, the opera houses only have spare change left over after they've paid off their various agents and theatres.

The opera companies also face a dilemma of how marketable they can become without sacrificing something of their artistic integrity. Certainly in the monetary jungle of a capitalist market, and with little financial state support, it seems extremely hard for them to survive. Liu Shirong says he has visited many opera houses in Germany, Britain and the US. Generally the government will finance 60% of the costs of operation for an opera house, with the houses having to make up the rest through ticket sales. It is not uncommon that a single opera will be performed over 200 times in 8 months, a situation hard to imagine in China.

Chen Jixin is the general manager of the Beijing Time New Century Entertainment Co., Ltd, and the agent for bass singer Tian Haojiang's solo recital. This manager says that she has high respect for this exquisite art and its artists, and wouldn't mind if she lost some money whilst contributing to opera concerts. She also believes that the operation of such performing arts shouldn't follow the commercial pattern of more popularist entertainment. "The entertainment industry can bring in huge profits and is highly commercial. Now we tend to confuse entertainment with the performance arts. In fact, they shouldn't follow the same market rules. Performance art like opera should be financed by society. In this sense it is a non-profitable industry," said Chen.  

Despite the many difficulties, the artists never cease in their efforts. Many opera companies all over the country are still trying out new methods of presentation in order to bring audiences back to the theatres. And as Tian Haojiang says, opera is so charming that you can get whatever you want from it, meaning that surely there is potential universal appeal in this traditionally elitist art.