It’s Beijing in the 1920s, where a rickshaw puller relentlessly plies his trade from morning till night, dreaming of being able to buy his own vehicle. After disproportionate sacrifice and hardship, he succeeds, only to wind up where he started after a series of mishaps makes his life even more unbearable and desolate than before. So goes the narrative of the novel Rickshaw Boy by acclaimed Chinese author Lao She (1899 -1966), upon which composer Guo Wenjing based his opera, which hits the stage of Teatro Regio, performed by the China National Centre for the Performing Arts. Considering Lao She’s regard for folk culture tradition and his keen sense of dramatic interplay, it’sclear that his tale has at last found a worthy musical framework.