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Hou Xinzi is a classical soprano who holds Bachelor's and Master’s degrees in Vocal Performance from MDW, where she is currently pursuing a PhD in Opera Analysis. As a soloist, she has performed in productions including Orfeo ed Euridice, Die lustige Witwe, Die Zauberflöte, Hänsel und Gretel, Le nozze di Figaro, Il barbiere di Siviglia and Die Welt repariert, and has premiered multiple modern works. Striving to balance performance practice with academic research, she explores diverse forms of musical expression: In 2024, she was selected for the Young Artistic Programme at the China National Opera House (NAF Project). The music-cultural documentary Poems from Afar, for which she led the initial concept, script and application materials, was shortlisted for funding by the National Radio and Television Administration of China and won the 2024 "Dangui Award" for Outstanding Documentary Series in Zhejiang Province. Her recording of Eugen d’Albertt’s song cycle 'Lieder der Liebe' was included in Paare in Kunst und Wissenschaft (Fornoff-Petrowski & Unseld, 2021). Subjects covered in her recent articles and conference presentations include the performing arts of German lieder, female image portrayal in opera, and orientalism and self-orientalism in opera.
Xinzi began her PhD research at MDW in October 2022 and has now entered the second phase of her research. Taking a postcolonial perspective, her dissertation examines how Chinese culture has been perceived and depicted in Western operas across different historical contexts, analysing the dynamic relationships and underlying reasons. Based on a macro review of historical backgrounds, this dissertation presents a case study analysing three operas featuring the same historical figure as their opera roles to further explore the complexity of the “cultural travel” process. In her analysis, she integrates contextual analysis and emphasises the intertextuality between text and music. The works involved in this research are more extensive than just well-known pieces — the continuously expanding number of relevant pieces is an unexpected discovery that emerged during the historical review part.