Beijing Music Festival to delight fans
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E-mail CRIENGLISH.com, September 30, 2016
One of China's most well-known musical events, the Beijing Music Festival will open in the capital city on October 9th, following the end of China's National Day holiday.
This year's festival carries two buzz words "legacy" and "innovation".
The annual festival was launched in 1998. It presents around 30 concerts in October every year offering a wide variety of classical and jazz music including opera, orchestral, chamber, solo, and choral concerts.
Also, the festival offers free children's concerts and students' concerts to assist in music education and also address the need of community engagement.
Tu Song is the director in charge of program structure for the Beijing Music Festival. He has been working as a program director for the festival for nine consecutive years.
He has revealed a highlight for this year's children's concerts.
"Years ago, renowned veteran composer Gu Jianfen produced an album in which 20 famous Chinese ancient poems were set to music. At the concerts for children, we would arrange an orchestra to play this album. And Gu's album has never been performed in such a way. I reckon it was an innovation in the style of performance. By this way, we expect young audience members to understand that music varies in different forms."
Earlier, Gu Jianfen noted there's no better way than through singing, to attract the younger generation to memorize the legacy of their ancestors.
In Tu Song's opinion, the concerts would help the young audiences better inherit China's cultural traditions in terms of both music and poems.
As for "Innovation", spectators will get the chance to admire the opera A Midsummer Night's Dream, adapted by British composer Benjamin Britten, as well as the 3D mini opera Blank Out written and directed by Michel van der Aa from the Netherlands.
Tu Song gives details on the Dutch composer Michel van der Aa's new work Blank Out, in which Van der Aa explores the possibilities of interaction between a female singer and a 3D film.
"Have Chinese spectators watched an opera which is screened in 3D? New ground has been made in the increasingly competitive field of opera as soon as we discovered Dutch composer-director Michel van der Aa's Chamber Opera for 3D film Blank Out. We have introduced Blank Out to be part of our Beijing Music Festival. The new feature of this opera is there's only one soprano performing with pre-recorded music, rather than a band to offer music accompaniment. This 3D live stage is supported by multi-media platforms, which also contain video."
The libretto is based on the work and life of South African poet Ingrid Jonker, and tells a story on the changes that take place in a mother and son's life following a traumatic event.
Moreover, Mozart's opera masterpiece Giovanni will be presented in an unprecedented way. It will be a site-specific immersive production with revolutionary visual technology and stage effect.
The 19th Beijing Music Festival plans to demonstrate the development of classical music in the 21st century and will run three weeks from October 9 to 29.
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