{"id":58566,"date":"2014-04-09T12:20:28","date_gmt":"2014-04-09T16:20:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=58566"},"modified":"2019-07-05T10:44:27","modified_gmt":"2019-07-05T14:44:27","slug":"ucf-composers-opera-brings-marco-polos-story-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-composers-opera-brings-marco-polos-story-life\/","title":{"rendered":"UCF Composer\u2019s Opera Brings Marco Polo\u2019s Story to Life"},"content":{"rendered":"
The new opera The Red Silk Thread, An Epic Tale of Marco Polo <\/em>takes us back to the 13th century, but its themes are still relevant today.<\/p>\n Composed by UCF\u2019s Stella Sung, the opera will debut next week at the 海角直播 of Florida in Gainesville. Sung, director of UCF\u2019s Center for Research and Education in Arts, Technology and Entertainment, has written about 100 compositions, but this is her first opera \u2013 and she says it won\u2019t be her last.<\/p>\n \u201cIn doing the research, I discovered that I could develop a story \u2013 based in historical fact or at least what we know of Marco Polo and Kublai Khan \u2013 that would make a good opera plot,\u201d she said. \u201cDashing world traveler plus a young and beautiful princess gives us the love element, but the thrust of the story has two central themes: one of fate and one of transformation, and this is really where the depth of the story is found.\u201d<\/p>\n The tale follows the Italian merchant on his travels to China, where he meets the Mongolian emperor and his daughter. The project took about nine months to complete with librettist Ernest Hilbert.<\/p>\n The story came about because Sung said she wanted to expound on the Chinese proverb that says \u201cpeople who are meant to be together will also be connected by an invisible \u2018thread\u2019 \u2013 a feeling of being connected to those whom we are fated to meet.\u201d<\/p>\n The story line also interested her because her parents are from China. They met at UF and still live in Gainesville.<\/p>\n