Chen Shi-Zheng: The human value of difference

An exciting director whose career covers an impressively vast range of genres, Chen Shi-Zheng has directed for the world’s leading opera houses and festivals, including the Lincoln Center Festival, the Royal Opera House and the English National Opera. On film, he has directed Meryl Streep for his award-winning film Dark Matter, as well as Disney’s High School Musical China at the other end of the spectrum, and has made TV documentaries too. He’s now in Australia, rehearsing all four operas of Wagner’s monumental Ring Cycle for Opera Australia, to be performed in Brisbane in December.Shi-Zheng reveals what is in store for this new production of one of opera's greatest masterpieces and shares his own journey of discovery to a work beloved by opera devotees. We hear about his childhood in China during the Cultural Revolution when his father was sent to a re-education camp, plus his experience directing Meryl Streep and the challenges of securing a diversity of work.