台灣藝術家英文簡傳（1）－聲樂家曾道雄 Baritone Tseng Dau Hsiong

編輯／邱斐顯
Editior／Felicity Fei-Hsien Chiu  

Prof. Tseng Dau-Hsiong is a famous conductor, stage director, baritone and educator. He founded the Taipei Opera Theatre (台北歌劇劇場) in 1971 and has premiered more than 30 operas in Taiwan and Southeast Asia. In each opera production, he served as producer, stage director, vocal coach, chorus master, and even as a singer or conductor.

He is also an internationally recognized music educator. He was director of the Music Research Institute and the head of the Music Department at the National Taiwan Normal University from 1981 to 1984. He has conducted the chorus of the National Taiwan Normal University for more than 30 years, directing plays of sacred and secular works.

“IDOMENEO, King of Crete” was produced and conducted by Tseng in January 2008. Under Tseng’s instruction, the members of the Taipei Opera Theatre performed an ‘old-fashioned’ opera “IDOMENEO, King of Crete”.

This opera was composed by young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, using a classical plot (King Idomeneus, ‘Idomeneo’ in Italian, is mentioned in Homer and Virgil). Tseng also wrote the Chinese subtitles for this opera.

A note about Tseng Dau-Hsiong（曾道雄）, director.

Tseng Dau-Hsiong is a renowned Taiwanese baritone. Tseng, born in 1939 in Chang-hwa, Taiwan, studied with Robert Scholz and Paul Dai at National Taiwan Normal University, and with Franco Navarette and Maria de Los Angeles at the Royal Madrid Music Conservatory. He also studied opera and singing at Los Angeles University, under the guidance of Dr. Jan Propper, and opera directing under Maria Carta.

Tseng has given critically acclaimed operatic performances in Europe, U.S.A., Japan and Taiwan. As a highly regarded conductor, Tseng studied with Franco Ferrara in Siena and has conducted numerous operas and oratorios in Taiwan and elsewhere in Asia.

In 1988, Tseng was invited by the United Nations Refugee Agency to sing a baritone solo in Tokyo, Japan at concert to raise funds for hungry African children. He sang the famous Taiwanese song “Don’t Keep Fish in the Bottom of the Cup,” at the agreement of the composer Lu Chuan-Sheng. His performance highly impressed many people at the concert, including the Japanese Royal family.

In 1990, Tseng made history as the first Taiwanese to be invited by China to conduct and direct the opera La Traviata, produced by the National Central Opera Company, to celebrate the Asian Olympics in Beijing. That same year, he conducted the first opera ever performed at the Grand Theatre of the New Culture Centre in Hong Kong.

Tseng founded the Taipei Opera Theatre in 1971 and has since premiered more than 30 operas in Taiwan and Southeast Asia, including “Dido and Aeneas”, “Magic Flute”, “Idomeneo”, “Fidelio”, “Der Freichuetz”, “Hansel und Gretel”, “Macbeth”, “Rigoletto”, “Faust”, “Pagliacci”, “Il Segreto di Susanna”, “Mazart und Salieiri”, and “Gianni Schicchi”.

He was the director of the Music Research Institute and the head of the Music Department at National Taiwan Normal University from 1982 to 1985. He taught at Iowa State University as a visiting professor, and gave lectures at Louvain University in Belgium, as well as at the Universities of Leeds and Cambridge in the U.K.

Tseng has been recognized for the breadth of his achievements in opera, song and education. Many musicians and artists who worked with him have expressed appreciation for his fine conducting, profound musical knowledge and teaching enthusiasm.