Thousands of people watched the Second Shanghai International Festival of Arts which got off to a showy start Wednesday evening with a carnival and musical fireworks display at Pudong’s Century Park.
Followed by a concert and inaugural ceremony the very night, the world’s most lavish staging of “Aida” next night and dozens of other performances in the coming days, this year’s event promises a festive month of song, dance, theater and art for the city’s culture fans.
Despite the drizzle, some 12,000 audience members turned out to see 3,000 foreign and Chinese artists perform acrobatics, folk dances and songs on the lanes around the lake.
The highlight of the evening was a 30-minute fireworks display set to music.
Called “Beautiful Life” and created by renowned French performance designer Yves Relave, the show evidenced a romantic style set to classical music pieces by such composers as Johann Strauss, Gioacchino Rossini and Pietro Mascagni. During one musical crescendo, a 300-meter circle of blue flame outlined Center Lake.
The festivities will move indoors Thursday night with a formal opening ceremony at Shanghai Grand Theater.
Ma Xiaohui, a distinguished local musician who plays the “erhu,” a classical Chinese stringed instrument, will perform Bela Bartok’s six “Romanian Folk Dances,” accompanied by the Shanghai Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra. The internationally acclaimed soprano, Romania’s Elena Mosuc, will sing an aria from Mozart’s “Magic Flute” and perform the Strauss waltz “Sound of Spring.”
Chinese Central TV and Shanghai TV will broadcast the event live at 7:30 p.m.
But the most-anticipated event comes the following night, when a sellout crowd takes its seats for a spectacular open-air staging of “Aida” at Shanghai Stadium. Against the backdrop of a 30-meter-high Pyramid, 1,500 soldiers and a chorus of 1,000 will perform the Verdi opera. Hundreds of animals, including elephants, camels and tigers, will take part in the opera’s second act.
Throughout this month, 54 overseas and domestic performances will be presented on local stages. The fest offers many first-rank programs such as ballet by the Harlem Theater of Dance, a concert by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and a show by the Russian Circus on Ice.
(Shanghai Daily 11/02/2000)
