Did I know anything about putting on an opera? No, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me | Ai Weiwei

In 1987 I was an extra in Turandot, alongside operatic legends – little did I know I’d be directing the show 35 years later

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It was 1987 in New York, I had been in the city for six years, and I was an artist who had nothing to do. So when we saw there were opportunities to work as extras in a production of Giacomo Puccini’s Turandot by Franco Zeffirelli and James Levine at the Metropolitan Opera, both my brother Ai Dan and I went for the audition – and were accepted.

At the time, performing in the opera didn’t evoke any strong feelings in me, even though we were performing with famous opera singers like Éva Marton and Plácido Domingo. All I wanted then was to receive my fees after rehearsals and go to Gray’s Papaya on Broadway to feast on hot dogs.

Ai Weiwei is a leading contemporary artist, activist and advocate of political reform in China

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