May 4th
6:30 - 8:00 pm
Operatic bass Hao Jiang Tian reminisces about and performs the songs that highlight his tumultuous journey from the Cultural Revolution to the Metropolitan Opera. Tian is the first Chinese-born opera singer to achieve fame and a lasting success on world stages, but audiences know nothing about his childhood in a revolutionary household and his seven years of hard labor in a factory.
This program, which combines talk, music, and video, launches his biography, "Along the Roaring River: My Wild Ride from Mao to the Met" (John Wiley in association with Lincoln Center Books), co-authored with Lois B. Morris, who, with her husband Robert Lipsyte, reveal their tales of this East-West collaboration. Reception follows.