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Beijing Music Festival boosts int'l exchanges
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Music travels through time & Space
From Baroque to Contemporary Music" was also a theme of this year's festival. The innovative Canadian ensemble Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra presented their successful piece Galileo Project: Music of the Spheres. It expresses a musical dialogue with the starlit sky.
Opera "Semele", written 251 years ago by a maestro from the Baroque times, Handel was the festival's most challenging opera. It interweaves a Chinese family's story with Greek mythology. Directed by a Chinese performance artist, Zhang Huan, the play is set in an actual 450-year-old Chinese ancestral temple built during the Ming Dynasty.
And "Polish Beethoven", composer and conductor Krzysztof Penderecki premiered his "Three Chinese Songs", reflecting his perspective on Chinese poetry. The artist has had quite a few collaborations in China, based on his fondness for the Chinese pentatonic scale.
Chinese tale inspired commission works
Beijing Music Festival has always been dedicated to promoting its own commissions, especially those that blend eastern and western arts. "Semele", "Madame White Snake" and "Song of Farewell" are perfect examples.
One of the most popular romantic stories in Chinese culture, "Madame White Snake" has been called "the Chinese Romeo and Juliet." Zhou Long, a Chinese composer who has sojourned in the U.S. for years, revives the tale with a blazing sense of Chinese opera.
And "Song of Farewell," inspired from the popular Peking Opera piece "Farewell My Concubine", also blends the vitality of western opera with Chinese Peking Opera.
Regarded as a "Chinese Bach" by Musical America, Ye Xiaogang holds a special place in his heart for his first opera, and a special respect for the Beijing Music Festival.
Ye Xiaogang, Composer, said, "Three or four years ago, an idea came to me to write an opera on a Chinese subject, specifically Peking Opera. It is my first attempt of composing an opera and my executing capability, aesthetics and artistic vision were reinforced during the process, there was tremendous pressure and work too. I would like to express my appreciation to Beijing Music Festival and its artistic director Yu Long, who gave me huge support and this incredible opportunity to make my dream come true."
People say 12 years marks a completion of a full circle. Beijing Music Festival has launched a new cycle of exploration, and it will keep driving forward the development of classical music in China.
