Video: Songs of inspiration

Soprano Zhang Liping has released an album titled Sogno — Selected Italian Songs, in which she performs 16 works going back to the 17th century.

Zhang is one of the first Chinese sopranos to play a leading role at the world's top venue, the Royal Opera House in London, and one of the first to sing the title role in Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York.

She has achieved international acclaim by starring in more than 20 performances at top opera houses such as the Staatsoper Berlin, the Teatro Regio di Parma in Italy, and the Opera National de Paris.

Now a dedicated teacher, Zhang is a professor in the voice and opera department at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and currently serves as the vice-dean of the School of Music at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen. At 59, she offers more than just a collection of beautiful melodies with this new album.