Synopsis

 

In 1983, Hao Jiang Tian, born in Maoist China, traveled to the West to pursue his dream of a career singing Western-style opera. Nearly 30 years later, Tian returned to Beijing with a group of 20 young opera singers from around the world, to train them to sing in the difficult tonal language of Mandarin. This heartwarming documentary, by double Academy Award-winning filmmaker Allan Miller, chronicles the efforts of Tian and a team of coaches and master teachers from New York's Metropolitan Opera and top music conservatories in China, as they lead these talented young people on their historic journey to become the first-ever Western singers trained in Mandarin. The film captures the emotion, cultural, personal and artistic challenges that lead to the climactic ending as the group takes the stage at China's premier concert venue, The National Centre for the Performing Arts, to perform to an all-Chinese audience.