Opera fans around the world will be welcomed by Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi at the start of this Saturday’s live HD transmission of Tan Dun’s The First Emperor. Zhang, best known as the star of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Memoirs of a Geisha, taped an introduction this week to greet movie-theater audiences before the cameras go live to the Met stage for the performance, starring Plácido Domingo.

Zhang has worked closely with First Emperor director Zhang Yimou, having appeared in several of his films. She is also a fan of Tan Dun especially his theme song for Crouching Tiger, which she likes to sing along to.

Always known for her glamorous gowns, Zhang wore a dark blue Bottega Veneta dress embellished with leather shoulder straps while shooting the opening on the Met’s red-carpeted staircase.

In an interview after the filming, the actress said that she is proud that, from The First Emperor, audiences will learn something about Chinese history and culture.” —Vanessa Palo

Here are some photos of Zhang Ziyi at the Met taping.

Up the Met staircase, en route to the taping.

Getting instruction from director/cinematographer Ed Lachman.

A moment of levity during the taping.

With Met General Manager Peter Gelb.

With Lachman.

This entry was posted by Matt Dobkin on Thursday, January 11th, 2007 at 4:37 pm and is filed under New Production Countdown. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.