Ying Huang

Ying Huang (Chinese: 黄英; pinyin: Huáng Yīng; born 1968 in Shanghai) is a Chinese operatic soprano. She first came to international attention when she sang the title role in Frédéric Mitterrand's 1995 film Madame Butterfly and went on to an international career both in opera and on the concert stage. She was born and raised in Shanghai, and at 18 began five years of study at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music with Zhou Xiaoyan. After winning second prize in the 19th Concours International de Chant de Paris, she appeared regularly on Shanghai television and performed in Taiwan and North Korea in various cultural exchange programs. In 1994, director Frédéric Mitterrand and conductor James Conlon saw a video tape of her performance in the Paris Concours de Chant and auditioned her for the lead role in Mitterrand's film of Madame Butterfly. Her success in the film led to Conlon inviting her to perform in several concerts with the Cologne Philharmonic and to her operatic stage debut as Nannetta in Verdi's Falstaff at the Cologne Opera in 1996. That same year she appeared with Plácido Domingo and Michael Bolton in the Christmas in Vienna concert which was both televised and released on CD.