In the year of the Beijing Olympics, EMI Classics is pleased to release the debut CD by the Chinese-born soprano Liping Zhang whose interpretations of the belcanto and lyric repertoire have established her as a leading light in today’s opera world. The programme showcases arias by Puccini, Verdi, Donizetti and Bellini, including Vissi d’arte (Tosca), Un bel di (Madama Butterfly), Casta diva (Norma) and The Mad Scene from Lucia di Lammermoor. The Prague Philharmonic Orchestra is conducted by Giordano Bellincampi.
Liping Zhang was born in Wuhan, China, some 650 miles south of Beijing. The daughter of a classical musician and a dancer, she studied dance before entering the Wuhan Conservatoire as a voice student. While continuing her studies at the Beijing Conservatoire, she was selected to sing with Plácido Domingo in Tian'anmen Square. Subsequently, Zhang moved to Vancouver, Canada, where, as a member of Vancouver Opera's Young Artist Program, she performed the roles of Mimi (La bohème), Leila (Les pêcheurs de perles), Liù (Turandot), Marguerite (Faust) and Lucia (Lucia di Lammermoor) throughout the country. She has made her home in London since 1997.
It was the role of Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly that brought Liping Zhang to international attention. She has sung it to great acclaim at Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera, the Opéra de Paris, the Gran Teatro del Liceu Barcelona and the Deutsche Oper, among other houses in the U.S. Europe and Asia: “[In the role of Cio-Cio San,] Liping Zhang is entirely compelling in her every move, and in the perfectly integrated expressive range of her silk-spun soprano.” (The Times). Other roles she has made her own include Mimi and Micaela (Carmen), Violetta (La traviata), Liù (Turandot), Lucia (Lucia di Lammermoor), Gilda (Rigoletto), Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Contessa (Le nozze di Figaro), Luisa (Luisa Miller), Magda (La rondine) and Tosca.
Closely associated with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where her debut in 2002 caused a sensation, Liping has appeared in its productions of Madama Butterfly, Turandot, Lucia di Lammermoor, La bohème and Carmen. The Sunday Telegraph remarked that: "The biggest round of applause went to the Liù of Liping Zhang, whose sumptuous soprano had us hanging on her every note.” Hugh Canning wrote in Opera Magazine of her performance in La bohème, "I was delighted to encounter her lovely, stylishly sung Mimi.” Of her Lucia, The London Times said, “Liping Zhang gave us a heroine of exceptional eloquence and intensity, no drooping lily but a vital, suffering, deeply touching creature whose élans and agonies raised the work momentarily to a higher plane”.
In Asia, Liping has appeared as Mimi in Hong Kong and as Violetta at the Shanghai International Festival. In the United States, she has appeared as Cio-Cio-San and Mimi at New York City Opera and as Cio-Cio-San with Baltimore Opera.
"With Liping Zhang’s lovelorn Liu … sweet drama and music came rolled into one. Her part’s vocal perils left her unscathed; each word struck home in the heart in a way no one else’s ever did. At the curtain calls, she enjoyed all the fervent applause." The Times
“The soprano …. Clearly has great insight and intelligence, as well as good looks, and her clearly drawn, thoughtful performance held the audience in the palm of her hand. When she sang [Un bel di], you could see the tears being shed. Her performance was a tour-de-force.” Sunday Express
