All about the basso

After exactly 10 years, on Dec 17,1993, Tian appeared on that very stage alongside Pavarotti. The opera was I Lombardi, in which Pavarotti played the leading role and Tian was one of the supporting characters.

"After the first scene, I told him the story of that first visit to the Metropolitan Opera 10 years earlier, and of my first experience in the opera house," Tian says.

When the show ended and the cast went out for their curtain call, Pavarotti grabbed Tian's hand, inviting Tian to step out with him.

"He held my right hand with his left hand, and he used his right hand to draw attention from the audience to applaud me. And he repeated that in the rest of the performances. After that, he always called me 'China boy' and I would reply with a gesture of putting my palms together," says Tian.

In his book, he also tells stories of his experience with conductor Seiji Ozawa, who was born in Shenyang, Northeast China's Liaoning province, in 1935, and returned to Japan with his family in 1944. The conductor served as the musical director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1973 to 2002.

He told Tian about him visiting China with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1979, which was the first time that he returned to China since gaining an international reputation as a conductor.

Usually, the conductor did not use a music stand, but during the concert in Beijing's Capital Stadium, he put up a music stand in front of him, with his father's photo on it, fulfilling a long-held wish of his late father to see his son give a performance in China.

"It was one of the most beautiful days in my life. My family and friends were there. It felt like my father was there with me throughout the whole concert," the conductor told Tian when they did a rehearsal of La Boheme, an opera by Giacomo Puccini, in Tokyo in 2010. They toured with the show to five cities in Japan.