About 30,000 opera lovers in the Taiwan city of Taichung went to see a version of Turandot on Saturday and Sunday nights, which its renowned director Zhang Yimou said "has a special effect when staged by Chinese people."

Performed at Taichung International Baseball Stadium, Sunday's show started at 7:15 p.m., with 150 singing and dancing performers marching out from both sides of a 20-meter-high LED screen, which transformed the stage into an imperial palace.

Throughout the show, the synthesis of music and light helped relay the show's narrative, beautifully dramatizing the emotions of the characters.

The production, by the same team behind the spectacular opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, involved 400 mainland performers as well as locals.

Playing a little monk in the opera, 13-year-old Yang, one of the 20 local children performers, said, "Performing on the big stage makes me feel proud."

Director Zhang said the combination of the performers from both sides of the Taiwan Straits brought a diversity to the production that resulted in a very special performance.

"It's a Chinese story, so it has a special effect when staged by Chinese people," Zhang said. The theme song of Zhang's version is the household-known Chinese folk song Jasmine.

Giacomo Puccini's Turandot, based on a Persian fable and set in China, concerns a princess so desirable that admirers come in the thousands from around the world to court her. Any suitor who wants to wed her must answer her three vexing riddles, but they are beheaded if they fail to answer correctly.

Unlike the National Stadium, or Bird's Nest, where the version was shown on October 6 last year, the Taichung International Baseball Stadium is fan shaped so the entire audience has full view of the stage which makes the Taichung stadium more fitting for the event, Zhang said before the opening night.

Zhang's thoughts proved prophetic as enthusiastic applause erupted at the end of each act in Sunday's performance.

It was the first time the show was performed in Taiwan, with fans jamming traffic around the stadium and buying out tickets for the high-speed train from Taipei to Taichung.

(Xinhua News Agency March 29, 2010)