Clearly Tan Dun was a little nervous.

At a recent morning press conference, Tan greeted reporters with "Good evening."

He has a right to be.

Tan will soon be only the sixth composer in the New York-based Metropolitan Opera's more than 120-year history to lead his own opera.

The epic new opera, The First Emperor, composed by Tan, is scheduled for a world premiere on December 21.

The opera, which has been in the making for a decade, is produced by a team of notable figures including Tan as the composer, conductor and co-librettist. Zhang Yimou, an acclaimed Chinese filmmaker known for the movies Hero, House of Flying Daggers and Raise the Red Lantern, will direct. Plácido Domingo-a legendary Spanish tenor-stars in the title role. Ha Jin-an award-winning Chinese-American novelist-also is co-librettist with Tan.

"I feel nervous because it's the first time that we put all those disorganized things together," said Tan at the press conference on December 8 just before the rehearsal. Nonetheless, Tan looks forward to "a very wonderful spiritual journey."

Tan, widely recognized as an avant-garde composer, combines Chinese traditional opera with Western opera, both of which he is familiar with. He said that for him, Eastern and Western music have melded together and he hates the idea of dividing the two kinds of music into proportions in his opera.

Tan also said it was his "permanent dream," which came into his mind some 14 years ago, to write an opera for Plácido Domingo. That is one of the reasons that he decided to work on the story of the first emperor of China when he accepted a commission from the Metropolitan Opera 10 years ago, as he thought that the character of the first emperor would fit Domingo well.

Domingo attracted much attention when he appeared at the press conference dressed in an ancient armor, a costume he wears as the first Chinese emperor in the opera.

"This is a very important moment for me," the world-renowned tenor said, as singing the title role in The First Emperor will mark his first world premier opera performance at the Metropolitan Opera. Acclaiming Tan as a composer that he "admires," Domingo said that Tan is "doing a wonderful opera" and they have had great cooperation.

For Zhang Yimou, who accepted Tan's invitation as the director of the opera five years ago, the most challenging task in cooperating with Domingo is the language, as he himself told the press that day. But he also said that music and art are "boundless," which have enabled them to communicate and cooperate well with each other.

"Domingo is the best actor that I've ever met," Zhang said.

World famous for filmmaking, Zhang's opera experience is comparatively limited. His previous attempt in opera was directing Turandot for the Florence Opera in 1997, which was staged the next year in Beijing's Forbidden City. But it is reported that for Tan, Zhang, with his "brilliant cinematic perspective," was the best director for the world premier of this historical opera.

The Metropolitan Opera, since its inception in 1883, has been one of the world's leading opera companies. It stages more than 200 performances of opera each season in New York City. More than 800,000 people attend performances in the opera house during the season, while millions more throughout the world experience the Metropolitan Opera on TV and radio, and through tours and recordings.

(Reported from New York)