Tea-- The Heart's Mirror is an opera by the world-famous Chinese composer Tan Dun, the opera introduces a love story between a princess of the Tang Dynasty and a Japanese monk  through the description of the origin of the Chinese tea culture and the Book of Tea written by Lu Yu. The opera adopts music full of the profoundness and easiness of Chinese style and utilizes diversified natural sounds as well as percussion instruments like shuiqin (water-phone), yunluo (cloud gongs), porcelains, pottery drums and even paper and water., etc., which are in perfect harmony with the Book of Tea and the Zen represented in the opera in terms of form and content.   

Tea-- The Heart's Mirror  has many versions of different countries, including Japan, France, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Sweden, since its debut in Tokyo in 2002. Many famous opera actors of the world and top opera actors of China, including Liao Changyong, Fu Haijing, Li Xiuying and Mo Hualun, have played the leading roles in different versions. However, there has never been a Chinese version of the opera so far although it is a collection of Chinese culture and national legacies, which is a blank in its history since its birth 15 years ago. In 2008, at the juncture of the Olympic Games, when the whole world focus on Beijing, creators of  Tea-- The Hearts Mirror will pull out all stops to present a classic work integrating the excellent tradition of Chinese culture and modern originality so as to reproduce the traditional elements in a modern way and carry forward the Chinese spirits with international styles.      

Synopsis
Tea-- The Heart's Mirror tell us such a story: in the Tang Dynasty of ancient China, Japanese Prince Seikyo fell in love with Chinese princess Lan during his study of Tea Ceremony in China and expressed his wish to marry her. The Chinese emperor asked Seikyo to recite a tea poem and Seikyo's excellent performance led the emperor to approve their marriage, which made the Crown Prince, elder brother of Lan, disgruntled.

Amidst a tea festival, a Persian prince offered a thousand horses in exchange for one book:  Book of Tea . The Crown Prince reluctantly took out his Book of Tea for the exchange, however, Seikyo expressed doubt that this wasn't the true book shown him by its author, his teacher the Tea Sage Luyu.. Angry and jealous, the Crown Prince challenged Seikyo and vowed to sacrifice his own life if Seikyo could show him the "real" Book of Tea. Seikyo promised to end his life if proven wrong.   

Then Seikyo and Lan began their journey to seek for the authentic Book of Tea. In a tea festival, they met Lu, daughter of Lu Yu. Lu announced Luyu's death and consented to give Seikyo and Lan the Book of Tea on the condition that they vowed to spread its wisdom throughout the world. As they read it, the Crown Prince bursted in and grabbed the book. A fight erupted between Seikyo and the Crown Prince. Attempting to stop the duel, Lan is mortally wounded. The crown prince was so regretful and gave his sword to Seikyo so that he could pay for her sister's death with his own life. However, Seikyo sliced off his own hair with the sword and became a monk preaching Tea Ceremony in Japan thereafter…  

Composer: Tan Dun

Writer/Lyrics: Tan Dun, Xu Ying

Director/Choreographer: Chiang Ching

Stage Design: Chiang Ching

Costume Design and Dressing: Patrizia Von Brandstein (Germany)

Lighting Design: Tommy Wang (Singapore)

Colored Glaze Design: Yang Hui-Shang (Taiwan, China)

Property Design: Thomas Lundgvist (Sweden)

Researsal Conductor: Erik Ochsner (USA)

Percussion Director: Haruka Fujii (Japan)

Background Painter: Ding Xiongquan

Multimedia Animation: Wang Qiang