Singing: A Joy in Any Language

In the spring of 1982, three well-known Canadian performers, contralto Maureen Forrester, bass baritone Claude Corbeil and pianist Claude Savard, spent two weeks in China giving public concerts and holding master classes in singing for students at the Beijing, Shenyang and Harbin music conservatories. This tour gave the students a chance to hear and learn from professional singers of European opera, and introduced the Canadians to a unique form of opera--800-year-old traditional Chinese opera. This one-hour documentary is a record of that tour, a tribute to the songs and singers of both nations, and an affirmation that music and song do indeed span all cultures and transcend linguistic barriers.