A magical combination

The upcoming show is not the first time that Italian and Chinese artists have cooperated on a story about Marco Polo.

Thirty years ago, the TV series Marco Polo co-produced by China, the United States and Italy was broadcast in 1982 with then well-known Chinese actor Ying Ruocheng playing Kublai, the founding emperor of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), who warmly welcomed the Italian explorer.

Ying showed his fluency in English in that TV series. And this time Italian tenor Giuseppe Talamo will sing in Chinese on stage.

The 39-year-old Italian singer says although he has performed roles in English, French and German, he has never sung a note in Chinese, so he is now learning Chinese with professional guidance.

"You don't have to speak a language in order to sing in that language, but, still, this will probably be the biggest challenge of my career," Talamo says.

"But I console myself because even if I have an Italian accent when I sing in Chinese, Marco Polo probably had the same accent when he visited China," he says.

As for the director Kasper Holten, he says: "Marco Polo's story may be well-known, but we can now present it in a new way.

"It is a Chinese opera, as well as a European one, which is written and produced by a Chinese and composed by a German. That is exciting."

The Danish director, who was the director of opera at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London between 2011 and 2017, says despite the challenges the Marco Polo opera brought to him, he wants to deliver a Chinese philosophy to European audiences via this play.

New fruit on Silk Road

Speaking about the response to the opera from overseas, Chen, the opera's executive producer, says it is seeing big interest and curiosity as audiences abroad are confident about China's ability to create high-quality cultural products.

This is because not long before the 2018 premiere of the opera, China's experimental Peking Opera Turandot co-produced by the National Peking Opera Company and the Italian Emilia-Romane Theater Foundation was performed in Italy.

Besides, in 2015, China and Italy had already produced the experimental Peking Opera Faust together. Both the operas achieved huge success in overseas markets.

Meanwhile, the CAEG, which launched the Silk Road International League of Theaters in 2016, now has 107 members from 37 countries and two international organizations in the union, including the CFT.

Cultural exchanges are now playing an increasingly important part in the construction of the Belt and Road.

In a keynote speech at the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation held in Beijing in May 2017, President Xi Jinping made an appeal for related countries to "build the Belt and Road into a road connecting different civilizations", promoting the application of "exchange", "mutual learning" and "coexistence" in dealing with different civilizations.

For now, the opera team is still polishing the over two-hour Marco Polo opera.

And speaking about the ongoing work, Chen says: "As an original opera in Chinese, Marco Polo still needs improving."