Sweet sounds of spring
International music festival opens in Shanghai, wooing fans with concerts, dance shows
The 39th Shanghai Spring International Music Festival, the oldest music festival in China, kicked off on March 22. This festival, together with the annual China Shanghai International Arts Festival in November, is an important platform for communication between artistic institutions from home and abroad, as witnessed through the decades of development in the music and dance scenes of Shanghai, according to Xia Yujing, Party secretary of the Shanghai Federation of Art and Literary Circles, the festival’s organizer.
This year, the festival, which runs until April 14, features 66 productions, 57 of which are concerts, with the rest being dance shows.
The opening concert which took place at the Shanghai Symphony Hall on March 22, was a gala event that showcased outstanding Chinese compositions in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
More than 100 pieces of orchestra brought together around 300 musicians from several notable Shanghai institutions, including instrumentalists from the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, and singers from the Shanghai Opera House, the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, and the children’s chorus of CWI Children’s Palace. It was conducted by Yu Feng, head of the Central Conservatory of Music.
Pianist Kong Xiangdong played Ode to the Red Flag, composed by Lyu Qiming, at the concert. The symphony piece was premiered by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra at the Shanghai Spring International Festival in 1965. “The concert will help audiences to better understand the musical heritage of the city,” said Zhou Ping, director of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, ahead of the opening night.
The closing production, on April 14, presented at Shangyin Opera House, will be a joint production of The Barber of Seville by the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and Como Opera House in Italy.
According to Liao Changyong, director of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, the plan for the collaboration was eventually realized five years after it was proposed in 2019, and the production will feature vocal artists from both institutions, including award-winning artists from the annual singers’ competition held by the school.
This year’s festival will feature 24 international productions, more than ever before. As an integral part of the event, a mini festival will take place highlighting the musical exchanges between China and France, in celebration of the China-France Year of Culture and Tourism in 2024. Xu Zhong, director of Shanghai Opera House, will conduct Hector Berlioz’s Symphony Romeo and Juliet, a representative piece of French Romantic music.
Among the visiting foreign companies is the Royal Opera House Orchestra from the Palace of Versailles in France, which will make its Shanghai debut on April 7, at Shanghai Oriental Art Center.
Xin Lili, director of Shanghai Ballet, said the company will introduce a group of young dancers at the festival, who will take the leading role in The White Haired Girl, which debuted in 1965 and was one of the first Chinese ballet productions.
“The production witnessed the early development of ballet in China,” Xin said. “We have had many generations of artists performing it. If a dancer can take on the leading role in The White Haired Girl, they are very likely capable of playing any other character in a Chinese ballet production.”