New Year's Concert features classic operas

The New Year’s Concert at the Shanghai Grand Theater on Thursday night will feature classic operas under the baton of conductor and pianist Xu Zhong, who is also the director of the Shanghai Opera House.

It’s the seventh time the Opera House and the Grand Theater have joined hands for New Year’s concert performances.

But it will be the first time for a domestic conductor to take charge.

World-famous foreign conductors that have cooperated with the Shanghai Opera House for the concerts include German Markus Stenz, American Lawrence Foster, Israeli Daniel Oren, Austrian Franz Welser-Möst, Estonian-American Neeme Järvi and Italian Fabio Luisi.

The program includes selections from five operas: Georges Bizet’s “Carmen,” Richard Georg Strauss’ “Der Rosenkavalier Suite,” Franz Lehar’s “Das Land des Lächelns,” and Richard Wagner’s “Tannhauser” and “Die Meistersinger von Nurnburg.”

The Opera House is sending a 180-strong squad that includes the symphony orchestra, the chorus and a group of talented young singers, Xu said.

“The performance will start with the operette of ‘Das Land des Lächelns,’ an opera that involves Chinese elements,” said Xu. “Then our orchestra will showcase their ability and distinguished characteristics in ‘Der Rosenkavalier Suite,’ followed by ‘Carmen” which is our strong suit.

“This year’s performance features certain number of German operas, and we will try our best to interpret them and present their charm to the audiences.”

Tenor Yu Haolei, who will perform in “Das Land des Lächelns,” said the German pronunciation in the aria was a challenge for the performers.

“Director Xu invited vocal experts from overseas to give us instructions and training through online methods, which was of great help,” he said.

The concert will also be available via video streaming on Tencent’s art channel for those who can’t attend the performance in person.

Performance info

Dates: December 31, 7:30pm
Ticket Prices: 160-980 yuan
Venue: Shanghai Grand Theater
Address: 300 People’s Ave