IN 1994, THE Chinese government sent a little-known young soprano to Europe for a film audition. She had only been outside her country once before, on a similar government-sponsored trip to an international classical music singing competition, in which she finished runner-up. But that was the extent of her exposure to the western world. She had no acting experience, and her language skills were limited to the lyrics she had learned for her music.
So it was a shock to the film and music industry when Ying Huang beat a better-known Japanese singer for the coveted lead role in Frederic Mitterand's interpretation of Madame Butterfly, based on the Puccini opera. The 1995 film gave wings to her career, and today she is one of China's top western-style opera singers. She has performed around the world, and has an exclusive recording contract with Sony Classical.
For Huang - who will be flying in to perform in Hong Kong on Friday - the Madame Butterfly audition was the fuse for an explosive career leap. The ambitious singer, then in her early 20s, decided to send in an MTV-style video clip of her rendition of Dvorak's Songs My Mother Taught Me. It was a long shot, but it was enough to impress Butterfly music director James Conlon, who called her back for an audition in Germany.
After a nervous wait for government officials to give their blessing, Huang flew to Cologne. She was understandably nervous, as she had never seen Butterfly performed, couldn't find a recording of it on the mainland, and had to learn the part purely from reading the score.
'I had to compete against 200 sopranos from all over the world,' says the 35-year-old. 'The Chinese government had sent me. It was the only way at that time for an artist to leave the mainland. It wasn't easy to step foot outside of China, even 10 years ago.'
Today, she still sounds surprised she got the part. 'I guess Mitterand was looking for someone new, fresh, young and natural. So I guess it was my luck. I have a baby face.' Still, it took the inexperienced performer six months of preparation before the actual filming, which was done over a challenging two and a half months in Tunisia.