Since the result of this first opera stage directing was such a success, Yoshi was asked in 1999 to do the stage direction of the Stravinski opera «  The Nightingal » and in the same evening, followed by « Wolf Cub Village » from Guo Wenjing, for the Opera de Lyon in the french town of Rouen.

The second work, « Wolf Cub Village » (1994), is a chamber opera which was created based on Lu Xun’s Chinese literary work Diary of a Madman. This opera’s libretto, written in Chinese, exaggerated the features of Mandarin pronunciation. This exaggerated pronunciation expresses the bleak mood and recalcitrant spirit of the opera quite vividly, strongly, and impressively. Le Monde compared his “masterpiece of madness” to Wozzeck von Berg and The Nose from Shostakovich.
For this work I was allowed to hire some dancers and, as I was used to do, I found very good ones at the German Dance Academy of the Folkswangschule in Essen.
This experience has been also a very interesting and pleasant work, and what I will never forget is how I have been impressed to hear Michael Bennett singing the main role of the « Village du Louveteau » in Chinese!.


That work was my last one with Yoshi and a few month later, I will have the big luck to meet the next stage director which will introduce me to theatre world, Burkhart Kosminski.