Is China poised to become next opera superpower?

BEIJING—When Italian opera star Leo Nucci set off in 2009 on his first-ever working visit to China, he concedes he felt a measure of excitement.

“I’d heard about the passion for opera that was just starting to emerge in China,” says Nucci. “Some of my colleagues had been there.”

Their reports, however, were no preparation for what Nucci was about to encounter.

As he and soprano Desiree Rancatore finished the aria that closes Rigoletto’s third act, the audience inside Beijing’s opera house erupted with applause.

And it would not stop.

After several deafening minutes conductor Donato Renzetti finally signalled to the performers to do the aria all over again, for pure pleasure — on the spot.

And so they did, to yet more rapturous applause.

In 40 years of performing, the 67-year-old Nucci confides, he had never felt anything like it.

“The reaction of the people, the entire house on its feet, my name being called out in Chinese — honestly, it made you feel like a rock star,” he says, in his glowing baritone.

“This was one of the most powerful and moving moments I have ever felt on stage.”

It was also a clear signal that western opera has arrived in China.

It might not yet have the broader appeal it enjoys in New York, London or Toronto, or in the capitals of continental Europe.

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