Stage: 3 To See
The National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) has partnered with Venice’s Teatro La Fenice, the pre-eminent opera house, for this production of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly - a highlight of the NCPA’s Opera Festival. With bold, minimalist staging and international and local soloists supported by La Fenice’s own, Puccini’s tale of betrayed love will be staged over four nights in Beijing. Two sopranos will alternate as the tragic lead Cio-Cio San: China’s own Zhang Liping, who has made the role her own in productions from New York’s Met to Covent Garden to the Paris Opera, and up-and-coming star Francesca Scaini. Cio-Cio San’s fickle lover Pinkerton will be played by the established tenor Massimiliano Pisapia and the young Bulgarian star Kamen Chanev. Madeleine O’Dea
Madama Butterfly will be performed Jun 4-7 (4, 6: Zhang and Pisapia; 5, 7: Scaini and Chanev) at the NCPA Opera House. RMB 480-1,380. 7.30pm.
“With this show, I hope to make modern audiences appreciate traditional Chinese theater – not like a piece of art in a museum, but as a living art which can still be connected to our current world,” says Sarah Oppenheim. As part of Croisements 2009, the talented young French director has adapted one of China’s most captivating ghost plays by blending Peking opera with shadow puppets. The drama transforms from human to puppet as it descends from earth to underworld, telling the story of an unfortunate girl who is murdered and then unjustly tortured in the afterlife. The famous judge Bao Gong takes pity on the girl; he descends to the underworld in order to help her find and punish her murderer. Performed by Peking opera performers and the Hanfeizi Shadow Puppet Theater. Cecily Huang
L’exécution du Juge Infernal runs Jun 9-11 at Chaoyang Cultural Center.
RMB 50-180. 7.30pm.
“Piano aux Jacobins” is a renowned festival that has been held in the Cloister des Jacobins in Toulouse for 30 years. For the past five, the festival has staged an associated event in China. This June brings three very different pianists to the Beijing stage. On June 5, established virtuoso Steven Kovacevich plays Schubert’s Sonata in A major, D. 959 and Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations. Acclaimed for his interpretation of such classic pieces, Kovacevich’s recording of the latter is considered a benchmark. On June 6, up-and-coming French pianist Romain Descharmes takes the stage, with a romantic program of Chopin, Debussy and – hitting a bolder note – American composer Frederic Rzewski’s tour-de-force, the “Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues.” Finally, June 7 brings the noted jazz composer and performer Edouard Ferlet, with a program of jazz standards. Madeleine O’Dea
Piano aux Jacobins” will run from Jun 5-7 at the Forbidden City Concert Hall.
RMB 60-380. 7.30pm.
