Ｆｉｒｓｔ Ｏｕｔｉｎｇ ｆｏｒ Ｆｉｒｓｔ Ｅｍｐｅｒｏｒ

　　At a recent dress rehearsal of the open-ing scene of Tan Dun’s much antici-paled The First Emperor，the com-poser-conductor addresses theAmerican singers on stage from thepit：“This is not Wagner，it’s Chinese opera，” ashe waves his conductor’s baton rhythmicallyin the air and instructs them to produce a morehollow vocal sound akin to Peking oper