The headline acts in the opening season of the National Center
for the Performing Arts (NCPA) are world class. Valery Gergiev will
conduct the Kirov-Mariinsky Theater of St Petersburg, Lorin Maazel
heads up the New York Philharmonic and Kurt Masur leads the London
Philharmonic. However, Chinese artists will have the honor of
formally raising the curtain of the China's largest stage.
"The National Center for the Performing Arts is a dream of
generations of Chinese artists for half a century," says Chen
Zuohuang, music director of NCPA. "We invite the celebrated
international stars to enhance the world class artistry, but we do
hope to have our own artists perform on the opening day."
The three concerts on December 22, 23 and 24 will feature a
star-studded cast and a rich repertoire of both classic and new
commissioned work, both Western and Chinese folk music, chorus and
organ.
Pianist Li Yundi, one of
the celebrated musicians who will raise the curtain of the National
Center for the Performing Arts this week.
On December 22 and 23, Chen and Tan Lihua, artistic director and
chief conductor of Beijing Symphony Orchestra (BSO) will, in turn,
take the baton of the "big" orchestra united by BSO and the
National Symphony Orchestra of China.
Brilliant pianist Li Yundi will play Ravel's technically
difficult Piano Concerto in G major.
And then audiences will hear violins.
Lu Siqing, Huang Bin, Huang Mengla and Ning Feng - all golden
award winners of the Paganini Violin Competition - will grace the
concerts on December 22 and 23. They will play in turn, and also
feature in duets, as well as an ensemble performance, Paganini's 24
Capricci For Solo Violin and Vivaldi's Violin Concerto.
At the concert, the audience will also hear the very first
melody produced for the largest organ in China. Chinese composer Ye
Xiaogang was commissioned to create a work for the 6,500-pipe
organ.
"Nowadays, more and more new concert halls in China have organs
and the one in NCPA is the biggest and the most powerful," says the
composer.
The celebration concerts also include an opera gala on Christmas
Eve, featuring leading Chinese vocalists, such as soprano Yao Hong,
tenor Xu Chang and baritone Liao Changyong.
Liao will sing Rossini's Le Barbier de Sville while Xu will rise
to the challenge of singing Donizetti's aria A Mes Ami from opera
La Fille du Regiment. After Pavarotti, only a few tenors in the
world are able to hit all the nine thrilling high Cs in the last
minute of the aria. It will be thrilling to hear powerful Xu's
enchanting voice.
What is more exciting on the opera night is a new Turandot tune
will be born. The great Puccini died in November 1924 without
finishing the final scene of the opera Turandot. The composer's
colleague, Franco Alfano, completed the duet as well as a finale,
using Puccini's notes and sketches, however opera fans still
imagine what Puccini himself would have written for the Chinese
princess.
NCPA has commissioned Chinese composer Hao Weiya to write an
18-minute aria called The First Tear for the Chinese princess. The
score has been confirmed by the Puccini Foundation as a tribute for
the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth next year.
"This would be the first real Chinese interpretation of the
story of the Chinese princess Turandot," says the composer Hao.
(China Daily December 18, 2007)
