On 16 October, the studio recording of Xiaogang Ye’s opera Song of Farewell began in earnest at the Concert Hall of the Zhejiang Conservatory of Music in Hangzhou, just one day after its concert performance by the Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Yang Yang.

Marking the 15th anniversary of the opera’s premiere, commissioned by the Beijing Music Festival in 2010, this ambitious project has been hailed as “the last great opera studio recording.” It brings together the full forces of the China National Opera Chorus, the Hangzhou Philharmonic, a dozen leading soloists, a Peking opera band, two Peking opera singers, and several Chinse traditional music instrumentalists, an undertaking of rare scale and expense in today’s opera world.

Catch a glimpse behind the scenes on the first day of recording, filmed on 16 October 2025.

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