Along the Roaring River: My Wild Ride from Mao to the Met

Since his 1991 debut at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, Hao Jiang Tian has appeared on the world’s greatest stages, more than 300 times at the Met alone. How he got there is a drama of bittersweet humor, mortal danger, heartbreaking tragedy, and inspiring triumph—more passionate and turbulent than even the grandest opera. In Along the Roaring River, Tian relives his coming of age in China during the chaotic Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s and his dramatic journey from hard labor in a Beijing factory to international opera stardom.

HAO JIANG TIAN is the first Chinese-born opera singer to achieve a lasting success on world stages. A bass with a voice that is unusually sweet and versatile, he has appeared at the Metropolitan Opera every season since he debuted there in 1991. He performs the major bass roles at the great opera houses around the globe. Recently he and his wife, Martha Liao, have begun to foster new Chinese opera and talent for the world to hear. Now an American citizen, Tian has homes in New York City, Denver (where he used to sing at a piano bar), and Beijing.