Shenyang in a concert Photo: Courtesy of Shenyang

"Go abroad, either to Europe or the United States - this is the only way to success." This has been the rule for every Chinese singer who wants to sing opera (apart from those working in Peking Opera, of course).

In 1947, the Shanghai-born Chinese bass-baritone, Yi-Kwei Sze (1915-1994), cut a striking figure in the West at his American debut in New York's Town Hall. He was to become what is generally regarded as the first Chinese-born singer to make a career in opera in the West, winning acclaim for many years not just in the US but in Europe as well.

Today, more than 60 years on, the battles for recognition by young Chinese opera singers continue as they push to overcome cultural and educational differences to make their names in the highly competitive and unforgiving world of opera.

To become another Yi-Kwei Sze is now though not the only appeal the Western opera scene offers.

Shi Yijie performing in an opera Photo: Courtesy of Shi Yijie

New season

In March, the Global Times caught up with the Shanghai-born tenor Shi Yijie. In just a few hours the 32-year-old was to fly back to Europe to start a new season of performances after a month's rest and recreation in China.

Shi has been working as a professional singer in Europe for eight years and is well aware of the pressures involved.

Even more so, because he is now the father of twin 4-year-old girls. He is booked to perform in operas and concerts until 2017, averaging between 40 and 50 performances every year.

"Usually European singers perform about 30 times a year," he told the Global Times. He got into the habit of trying to never turn a request down from the beginning - "once you refuse them, they probably won't ask you again because they have so many choices, especially among Asian singers."

Shi said this was not surprising given the number of Asians now studying and working in opera in Europe. At present most of the artists are South Korean with Chinese and Japanese singers not far behind.

Over recent years, to save money, many of the opera houses in Europe have been hiring younger, less experienced and recognized singers paying them less but making them perform too often, Shi said.

"When these voices are ruined they just go on to hire other newcomers."

Nowadays because there are so many Asians graduating from European schools every year, most of them jump at opportunities to work and don't refuse any offers."

Shi Yijie performing in an opera Photo: Courtesy of Shi Yijie

A lucky break

Shi counts himself lucky in this regard. In 2006, after graduating as the top student, at the prestigious Toho College of Music in Tokyo, Shi moved to Graz, Austria, on a fellowship to continue his studies.

Over that year he studied 12 classic opera roles and won prizes in four major opera singing competitions. That was the year when he met Gianni Tangucci, a legendary Italian opera director who was impressed with the young Chinese tenor but didn't realize he didn't speak Italian fluently.

"When he heard me sing he thought I could speak Italian fluently and when he met me he spoke rapid Italian to me," Shi recalled. "But actually the only Italian I could speak was to say hello, thank you and goodbye."

The language barrier was not a problem on this occasion. With Tangucci promoting him Shi began his career as a professional singer in Europe.

Now after a great deal of experience and time in European opera houses, Shi has learned to shrug off the highs and lows of the profession.

He told of one time when an audience member reviewed his performance in an Italian opera on Twitter. "The guy wrote that he shut his eyes after he had watched the first act of the opera and listened to the rest without opening his eyes again. He couldn't stand the sight of an Asian face in the opera! I didn't know whether to cry or laugh after reading this though I think I could understand that feeling if I saw a white person in a Peking Opera role."

Over the past few years, Shi has appeared in some opera productions in China but he has no plans to return here permanently yet - even though the opera market in Europe is shrinking, it is still a major attraction for people there and China will not reach that level for some time.

View echoed

Shi's view is echoed by Ge Yi, the deputy director of the opera singing department at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. After graduating from the conservatory in 1985, Ge started studying and then performed abroad as a professional tenor in the US and Europe until 2002 when he returned to Shanghai.

Ge told the Global Times that although it seems unnecessary, he still tells his Chinese students to "go West."

"Of course, what's important is the individual's own endeavors," Ge said.

As a Chinese student of opera who had mostly been taught under a training model copied from the Soviet Union, when he went overseas, Ge discovered how unrelated his training was to what he was being taught in the West.

At that time, in Shanghai, it was also very difficult to acquire any imported music or information about opera from the West. Ge had to ask friends or relatives who were living abroad to send music back for him and he often had to wait several months for this to arrive.

"In 1985, when I was going to the United States for the first time, I only took $60 with me because that was the maximum amount of money allowed by the government to be taken abroad."

After five years in the US when Ge was asked to perform in Europe in the 1990s, his visa was not granted for three months - "Unexpectedly they investigated me for a long time."

The conditions and opportunities for today's young singers are so much better, Ge notes.

"But today's singers are not trying as hard as we used to - especially compared to the South Korean singers who have been studying and performing in Europe for a much longer time."

Ge agrees with the singer Shi that in Europe, South Korean singers have been making their presence felt. "The most important thing is they get themselves involved positively in the local culture and community, not just in language, but also in the lifestyle."

Today the US offers a slightly different approach for aspiring singers from Asia.

Dr Robert C. White, Jr. is a legendary American music teacher and has been teaching opera singing in New York for almost 55 years. He has worked with 10 singers from China over the years and told the Global Times that a decade ago, the majority of the Asian students studying opera in the US were from South Korea or Japan. However, now, he said, the number of Chinese students is just about the same.

Dr White said that Chinese students had an advantage because Chinese has many vowel sounds similar to those in European languages, and there is in the students a serious Chinese work ethic that makes success more probable.

"The only disadvantage is that, as in many Asian cultures, there is a formality in their behavior and sometimes they have to be taught how to loosen up and become natural so that their performances look natural."

Prominent student

One of Dr White's most prominent students these days is the rising star baritone Shenyang. Born in Tianjin, Shenyang began to study in the department of opera singing at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 2003.

After being discovered in 2007 by the famous American soprano Renée Fleming in Shanghai and on her recommendation, Shenyang began a new life as a singer and student, working and studying abroad and competing in some of the world's top international singing competitions.

The 30-year-old has now been signed with the Metropolitan Opera in New York and is one of the signed artists with IMG (a major international performing arts agency).

But having appeared on the stage of one of the world's leading opera houses for several years, Shenyang said he still does not feel completely attached to the Western opera style and music. There is an emptiness in his heart, he said. He misses his own culture.

"The more I sing these operas the more I feel they don't belong to me," he told the Global Times in a recent interview in Shanghai.

And from 2007 to 2010, in his spare time away from studying opera at the Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and the artist diploma program at the Juilliard School, what he did most was to watch Lecture Room (Baijia Jiangtan), a Chinese television series where Chinese academics discuss Chinese culture and history.

Shenyang receives the top prize at the 2007 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition. Photos: Courtesy of Shenyang

Songs ignored

Shenyang often returns to China for his own solo concerts in which he performs classical Chinese art songs, which he said have been ignored by today's Chinese.

And when he heads back overseas, he always takes with him some examples of Chinese music to perform for Western audiences.

Shenyang believes that by following the opera studies model that the West has built over many years, any talented singers from China could succeed and win worldwide acclaim.

"But what does that matter if, ultimately, you can be replaced by someone else? Your success is also replaced."

Now an acclaimed singer who frequently moves between Shanghai and New York and looks for something different in his career, he posed an intriguing question: "Why does Shanghai have a specific opera house, but New York hasn't got a Peking Opera house? This is something every Chinese person should think about."