Staging a love story

"We stayed loyal to the original meaning of the songs in the Russian musical. At the same time, we tried to find the right words in Chinese to go with the melodies," says Liu, adding that he spent a whole year working on the translation.

Anna Karenina has important scenes that take place inside trains and at stations, which also gives the audience a sense of how the storyline moves.

"Turning the famous Russian writer's masterpiece into a two-hour musical was not easy. We have nearly 50 actors and actresses in the Chinese version, as well as 16 ballet dancers and eight choral singers. It is a big production and we worked with our Russian partners to keep it authentic," says Lei Yue, who works as the Chinese director of the musical.

Lei studied theater directing in Moscow for about four years, where she gained a deeper understanding of Russian literature, music, dance and arts.

The market for musicals in China has potential, with many popular Western musicals presented in the country and Chinese producers attempting to widen their reach by staging Mandarin productions of some such shows.

In 2018, the hit reality show, Super Vocal, produced by Hunan Satellite TV, successfully propelled classically trained Chinese singers, some of whom are musical performers, into stardom. Chinese bass-baritone singers Hong Zhiguang and Jia Fan are among those who gained a large fan base after appearing on the show. They will play the role of Vronsky in the Chinese musical Anna Karenina. Li-Tong Hsu and Zhang Huifang will play the role of Anna Karenina.

"One of my favorite scenes in the musical is when Anna meets Vronsky for the first time. It is the moment they fall for each other, and like the fast moving train, their relationship goes at a speed far beyond their control," says Hong, who was trained at China Conservatory of Music and later went to New York to study at the Mannes School of Music for a master's degree in 2014 and for an artist diploma from the Yale School of Music in 2016.

"I love the three-minute lullaby that Anna sings to her son. The song is unaccompanied," says Zhang Huifang. "Her love affair with Vronsky is passionate but, ultimately, Anna cannot enjoy it because she feels guilty, especially for her young son."

A string orchestra will give a live performance in the musical, which has over 40 catchy songs and features a wide range of music genres, such as pop, rock, and operatic style.

"The audience may well be humming some of the songs to themselves after watching the musical," Lei says.

The choreography also covers different styles, such as classical ballet and contemporary dance. Lei adds that paying tribute to the great writer, a Russian song from the musical was kept in the Chinese version and that will be performed by Chinese actors and actresses in Russian.