[Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Efforts paid off

The following honors Liang Ning won only meant that she made the right decision.

Video: Liang Ning performs at concert

She has since played the role of Octavian Rofrano in The Knight of the Rose at Metropolitan Opera House in New York, which remains her most favorite role.

In Teatro alla Scala of Milan, Italy, she became Suzuki at Madama Butterfly. She was also Rosina in The Barber of Seville, Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro, and Carmen in the opera Carmen.

In the 4-hour opera of The Knight of the Rose, the role of Octavian has to sing for almost 2 hours in the Viennese dialect.

"Every mezzo-soprano has dreamed to playing Octavian, but only a few ever get the chance to realize their dream due to the difficulties in skill, energy, language, understanding and performance," Liang Ning explained.

In 1980 when Liang was a student at the Central Conservatory of Music, she saw a poster of a mezzo-soprano holding a rose.

"I admired her so much and thought about if there would ever be a day that I would play such a role."

In 2004, Liang Ning passed on an opportunity offered by a German university and decided to come back to China to be a professor at the Central Conservatory of Music.

"On one hand, I wanted to take care of my parents. They are getting old and I felt it was time to repay them. On the other hand, I learned so much and I've gained a lot of experience, so I want to give back to the students in China, my homeland."

Always challenging herself

Liang Ning is good at facing new challenges. She is currently pursuing an EMBA at Peking University.

Liang has worked on operas for almost 25 years, and for her, it was becoming difficult to find greater challenges in the field, so she decided to learn something that she once disliked.

"I'm not sure that if I have the chance to use the knowledge, but I'm sure experiencing more is helpful to singing."

"This is me – a simple person eager to live a simple life."

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