A rising star in the world of opera, Shenzhen-born Wang Yunpeng is to make his British debut in January with a concert in Liverpool.

    He is to appear at an iconic venue where in the mid-1800s the British author Charles Dickens read his famous novels such as “A Christmas Carol.”

    Wang’s recital in the Concert Room at St. George’s Hall in Liverpool on January 24 is part of the Liverpool Opera Four Seasons concert series.

    Regarded as a new opera star of his generation, baritone Wang began the 2014-2015 season with his debut at the world-famous Metropolitan Opera in New York. Leading opera newspapers hailed Wang as a rising star and in October he featured on the cover of Opera News.

    Opera-goers in New York already know Wang as a member of the elite Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, with roles at the Metropolitan Opera including Fiorello in Rossini’s “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” and a role in Verdi’s “Don Carlo.”

    Wang received a bachelor’s degree in music from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and a master’s degree in vocal performance from Manhattan School of Music. He has won numerous awards, including three prizes from the renowned Placido Domingo’s Operalia, a global opera competition.

    Earlier this year, he made his role debut as Count Almaviva in Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro” at the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing.

    Wang’s love of opera started when he was in middle school in Shenzhen. Listening to the famous “Three Tenors” — Placido Domingo, Jose Carreras and Luciano Pavarotti — was enough to hook him on opera.

    “I was amazed by the quality of the sound. I wanted to be one of them,” he said in one interview.

    Later, as the baritone was about to graduate from the Central Conservatory in Beijing, he sang at a dinner party in China attended by the dean of Manhattan School of Music, who invited him to New York to study at the school on a full scholarship. Wang called it “an absolute miracle.”

    While at the school, Wang won a vocal competition, singing “Ah! per sempre” with such passion he brought tears to the eyes of at least two judges.

    Wang is now in his third year in the Lindemann Program at the famous Met, where this season he has also sung Fiorello in “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” and Prince Yamadori in Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly.”

    One of Wang’s passions is listening to vinyl records, spending time hunting second-hand stores for discs featuring opera greats such as his favorite composer, Verdi.

    (Xinhua)