Italian debut for Chinese opera

To celebrate the 115th birthday of Chinese author Lao She, Rickshaw Boy, an opera based on Lao's novel of the same name, was staged at Liaoning Grand Theatre in Shenyang, northeastern China's Liaoning province on March 13, 2014. [Photo/IC]

The opera will also be broadcast live on RAI - Italy's national public broadcasting company – at 7:30pm on Sep 23. It will be the first time an overseas original opera has been broadcast on the station.

From a novel by Chinese author Lao She (1899-1966), Rickshaw Boy talks about the life of a fictional Beijing rickshaw man and is considered a classic of 20th-century Chinese literature. The book was translated into Italian by sinologist Stefania Stafutti.