Wei Song as Xiang Yu and Xiong Yufei as Yu Ji in The King of Chu. Photo: Courtesy of Shanghai Opera House Orchestra

By Hu Bei

From TV to movies, Chinese opera is being dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century, and later this month the Shanghai Opera House will present three original Chinese operas in Western operatic styles, two ancient odes to historic heroes and one a contemporary adaptation of a modern Chinese novel.

These arias and stories are usually only heard and seen on stage in the traditional Chinese operas, but these performances offer a unique opportunity to see Eastern opera wtih a Western sound.

The opera, The King of Chu, the most anticipated of the three operas, has a cast of celebrated artists and performers including Yang Xiaoyong, Zhao Qing, Chi Liming, the Shanghai Dance Troupe, the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and the Shanghai Opera House Orchestra.

According to Wei Song, the vice director of the Shanghai Opera House, The King of Chu breaks the traditional king-versus-king paradigm.

He said that Xiang Yu and Liu Bang represent the essence of the event, new versus the old and the victory of the Han over the Chu.

Wei Song is one of the most famous contemporary Chinese opera tenors and he will play the King of Chu in this opera.

Wei said that the long solo opera aria for himself was designed for the character and that it was the highlight of the performance.

"It is not so difficult for me to play the role as most Chinese people are familiar with the story, but large sections of aria show the inner world of the tortured hero and these pose a big challenge for me," he said.

In The King of Chu, Wei has his work cut out for him in his aria which precedes the suicide of Xiang Yu.

"My strength raised up the hill, my might shadowed the world; but the times were against me," the tragic hero says on the shore of Wujiang River in Anhui Province, and, facing the roaring and endless water, he draws his sword and slits his own throat.

Jin Xiang, an acclaimed Chinese composer and conductor, distinguished himself primarily composing operas. In 1994, he visited the hometown of Xiang Yu and Liu Bang in person, and used this as an inspiration for The King of Chu.

According to Wei, as well as the long aria, Jin has added elements of contemporary music to the opera, which Wei described as, "necessary discordant sounds to reinforce Xiang Yu's conflicted and complicated mind."

Savage Land, Jin Xiang's first opera in 1987, was hugely successful in China and abroad.

When it premiered in the US in 1993, The New York Times said of it: "Jin's long-breathed, soaring melodies obliterate the quicksilver pitch inflections of Chinese speech, so ingeniously mirrored in traditional Chinese opera."

But Ou Nan, a reviewer from Opera magazine, has a contrary view of Jin Xiang's The King of Chu.

He feels the ending of the Peking Opera version of The King of Chu is better.

"As for the end of the depressed hero, drinking a bottle of wine alone is enough."

Alongside The King of Chu, the opera Xi Shi will be performed in Shanghai for the first time.

According to legend, Xi Shi was one of the Four Beauties of ancient China and lived during the end of the Spring and Autumn Period (770BC- 476BC).

Xi Shi tells the story of love and war in ancient China with a beautiful national heroine causing the downfall of a kingdom.

"In the opera, what I wanted to describe was the story of Xi Shi and her country, not just a single love story," said Zou Jingzhi, Xi Shi's writer.

"As for the conclusion of Xi Shi, the opera provides an outcome which is both tragic and thought provoking."

Thunderstorm is the work of the Chinese composer, Mo Fan.

It was adapted from a modern Chinese novel and deals with the complicated relationships in a large well-off family in the 1920s in China.

According to Mo, it has taken more than 10 years to turn the book into an opera.

Date: Xi Shi from tomorrow to May 29; Thunderstorm from June 2 to June 4; The King of Chu from June 8 to June 9, 7:15 pm

Venue: Shanghai Grand Theater 上海大剧院

Address: 300 People's Avenue 人æ°'大é"300号

Tickets: 50 to 380 yuan

Call 6386-2836 for details