Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra (SSO) and Shanghai Conservatory of Music (SCM) will present “The Tears of Yangtze,” an original opera composed by professor Hao Weiya, on the night of May 11.

Conducted by SSO artistic director Lin Daye, the opera features sopranos Liu Yuye, Zhao Xinxin, mezzo-soprano Lei Ming, tenors Yu Qian and Liu Yuxiang, baritone Wang Yang and bass-baritone Wan Jilun. All are top postgraduate students at SCM. The SCM Choir, staffed by bachelor’s students at the school and led by baritone Liao Changyong, will sing the chorus at the concert.

Adapted from a popular 1947 Chinese movie of the same title, also known as “The Spring River Flows East,” the opera details the trials and tribulations of a family around WWII, in pre-war, wartime and post-war China, where people suffered under Japanese invasion.

The four-act opera, following the plotline of the original movie, recounts the life of a young working-class couple, Sufen and Zhang Zhongliang.

Zhang is forced to flee to Chongqing in Southwest China, leaving his wife and a baby boy in Shanghai during the war. In Chongqing, he cannot find a job. Impoverished, he looks for his old acquaintance Wang Lizhen, who gives him a place to stay at her house and finds him a job at her godfather’s company. He degenerates into a loafer, and succumbs to the charms of Wang.

Zhang returns to Shanghai after the Japanese surrender in 1945. Now married to Wang, he stays with He Wenyan in Shanghai, another rich woman whose husband is in jail for being involved with the Japanese during the war. Wang returns to Shanghai soon afterwards. When He throws a cocktail party, Sufen, now a maid at He’s house, runs into her husband Zhang, who is about to dance with his new wife Wang.

When Sufen and Zhang’s mother go to confront Zhang at He’s mansion, Wang starts a ruckus and insists that Zhang divorce Sufen. Shamed and disillusioned, Sufen drowns herself in the Yangtze River.

Hao, who composed the opera, is a professor at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. He graduated with a doctorate in 1999 after studying under Chinese composer Wu Zuqiang. Hao has composed concertos, operas, symphonic works as well as Chinese musical pieces and soundtracks for movies and TV shows.

A free lecture on the opera and sample performances will be given at the second floor of Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra in Luohu District starting 7 p.m. May 10.

Two SSO concerts originally scheduled for May 12 and 19 have been canceled and those who already bought tickets can get a refund or opt to change one ticket for two to any of the other SSO shows for the 16/17 season at Shenzhen Concert Hall box office or the orchestra in Luohu.

Time: 8 p.m., May 11

Tickets: 50-380 yuan

Venue: Shenzhen Concert Hall, intersection of Hongli Road and Yitian Road, Futian District (福田区红荔路和益田路交汇处深圳音乐厅)

Metro: Line 3 or 4, Children’s Palace Station (少年宫站), Exit D(Debra Li)