Tenor Plácido Domingo Thrills Chinese Audiences In Macau

A Tenor For All Time: Plácido Domingo performing in Macau, China, at age 74.

"Music keeps a man’s soul passionate and ageless, as evinced by tenor-baritone Placido Domingo, now well into his seventies. At an age where others are retiring, the opera Renaissance man continues to take to the stage around the globe, showing no signs of slowing down. Coming to Macau for the first time, the opera master was in admiration of the city’s 'phenomenal” growth and its early tradition of Western opera. In turn, he surprised a fully packed auditorium at the Macau Cultural Centre with a Chinese poem-song paying tribute to the city’s colonial history at the end of the concert staged Saturday evening. 'Certainly opera is our life, wherever I go, I enjoy very much to do [perform] concerts,' he told media before a rehearsal for Saturday’s concert. 'After singing for so, so, so many years, I think probably nobody in this hall was born before I started singing. You can imagine how many years I have been singing, but for me, it’s very important and exciting, really, to sing in a place for the first time.' 'I think the public has the

Angela Gheorghiu Will Travel To China For Arts Festival In October

Cover Girl Gheorghiu: China & Romania have a history
 of several decades of economic and cultural exchanges.
Read more about that history by clicking here.

"Organizers of the 16th China Shanghai International Arts Festival say there will be more original performances at this year's event. Scheduled to run from October 17th to November 16th, the festival will have 45 musical, dance and theatrical works, including 25 from abroad. Here's more about it. The opening show will be a four-act Chinese opera called The River Flows to the East, which looks at the history of Shanghai. It will star Chinese opera tenor Liao Changyong and soprano Huang Ying. Organizers say one-third of the performances this year will be originals and Shanghai premiers. During the art festival, world-famous art troupes such as the St. Petersburg Academic Philharmonic, the Orchestra de Paris and the National Ballet of the Netherlands will give performances. Meanwhile, original Chinese productions including Shaoxing Opera will also be staged. 'We want to use this opportunity to introduce the world of Chinese original operas and art performances, to expand the influence of Chinese culture around the globe,' said Liu Wenguo, deputy secretary-general of Shanghai International Arts Festival. The closing performance will be a co-production of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, by over 300 artists from the Bejart Ballet Lausanne, the Tokyo Ballet, the Shanghai Ballet and the Shanghai Opera House." [Source] The festival will also includes performers Kyung Wha Chung, Mischa Maisky, Paavo Jarvi, and Kent Nagano. October 30, 2014, will feature soprano Angela Gheorghiu in recital with accompanist Alexandru Petrovici. Details of the recital are after the jump.

Opera Declines in America and Begins to Thrive in China

Guangzhou Opera House designed by Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid in the Guangdong province.

"As if any more proof was needed of China's growing dominance, it is now being bellowed at full volume by tenors and sopranos. Chinese composers have become a major source for opera in Europe and North America, while more opera festivals are staged in the People's Republic than anywhere else. 'The future of opera may be in China,' says Tian Hao Jiang, China's most celebrated operatic export a mainstay at New York's Metropolitan Opera. 'So it's about time to reverse the trend. Instead of Chinese singers always coming to the West, Western singers are coming to learn Chinese.' That's the idea behind Tian's 'I Sing Beijing,' a summer program bringing some 20 promising young professionals from the U.S., Europe and South America to China to learn to sing in Mandarin, a program that will culminate with a gala concert at the National Centre for the Performing Arts on August 18. For participants, it's a chance to see China and eat dumplings; to study Mandarin and perform in it. For Tian, it's the fruition of a ten-year vow to bring fellow singers back to the country he left 28 years ago. 'I was always telling my colleagues they had no idea about Chinese culture, and someday, I'd bring them here.'" [Source]