A Dundee student has struck the right chord in China after becoming the first foreigner to star in a traditional Shaanxi opera.

Adam Varjavandi (21), who is studying literature and language at the Shaanxi Normal University in Xi’an, appeared as the male lead in The Jade Bracelet.

Shaanxi Opera is the oldest form of Chinese opera, originating more than 2000 years ago, and Adam made history by becoming the first person from outside China to participate in a performance.

The former Morgan Academy pupil has just finished the second year of his four-year course and said it had been a fascinating, eye-opening experience.

Adam said, “The university opera society were looking for a foreigner to fill the role and someone passed on my name as they knew I’d done well in the Chinese department and am interested in music and performing.

“Shaanxi Opera uses a dialect which is spoken only in that province and so it was challenging to learn the language. I think it was difficult for the society to find a foreigner with the language skills required.

“Since the opera has been neglected by the younger generation, who don’t really understand the culture, the show was brought up-to-date so that we were singing in Chinese and speaking in English.”

Despite having played the guitar since the age of six, Adam had never appeared on stage in a singing role and had to work hard to get his performance up to the standard expected.

“I’ve not really done much singing before and I’ve never had vocal training so I struggled at parts,” he said.

“There were only two weeks to rehearse for the first show and a further two weeks before the second performance so I had to start memorising words of the dialect with a dictaphone and learning the culture of the opera straight away.

“The language is tonal which influences the music and it used to be very popular amongst the ordinary folk—an opera for the people by the people.

“Everyone was a bit worried as my performance was not quite up to speed but as soon as I was on stage I became more confident.

“I pulled through at the last minute and everyone was really surprised at how well I did—my teacher even asked me why I couldn’t have been that good in practice when I did so well on the stage.

“There was a lot of pressure on me but everyone was very sympathetic and all of the Chinese were so encouraging. It was a real novelty not to have a performer from China and everyone loved it.”

Adam, who is back home visiting his parents in Park Road, originally intended to remain in Dundee to study architecture. He went to China for a gap year at the age of 17 and found himself, more by accident than design, living and studying in China, where he hopes to continue to live at the end of his degree.