European director brings "Diary of One Who Disappeared" to Beijing

A Music-theatre Transparant production of "Diary of One Who Disappeared" is now being staged in Beijing starting Sunday, Oct 21, 2018.[Photo provided to China Plus]

World-famous musical 'Diary of One Who Disappeared' will be staged at the Beijing Music Festival today.

The performance is about a village boy named Janik who falls in love with a gypsy girl called Zefka and gives up everything to follow her.

Ed Lyon is the tenor.

"As performers, I think, the difficulty was allowing the text to suit the drama function of the piece. So trusting that the story that we are telling which is not strictly Diary of One Who Disappeared, I mean that's what makes it interesting, of course, is not just what the text says, that the something more profound has been kind of created."

Director Ivo van Hove adapts the work by making Janik a successful photographer and by moving the action from the countryside to the city.