Staging a return

The municipal government announced earlier this month measures it will take to implement the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) for cultural development.

A series of new facilities such as the east wings of the Shanghai Library and Shanghai Museum, the Shanghai Grand Opera House and the Children's Library in Pudong district, will be opened to the public during this period, according to Fang Shizhong, head of Shanghai's administration of culture and tourism.

The Shanghai Grand Theater's new season consists of a number of productions that will debut in the city.

A new dance theater production inspired by a well-known artwork in China－a long scroll painting, titled A Panorama of Mountains and Rivers, will debut in Shanghai on Sept 24. Created by choreographers Zhou Liya and Han Zhen, the production will be performed by the China Oriental Performing Arts Group.

The duo's creation for the Shanghai Dance Theater, a revolution-themed dance drama, titled The Eternal Wave, which received critical acclaim, will be staged from Oct 13 to Nov 7 at the Majestic Theater in Shanghai. The Peking Opera symphonic cycle Grand Canal of Beijing City will be presented on Oct 18 by the Beijing Symphony Orchestra and the Jingju Theater of Beijing. The production depicts the landscape of the Beijing section of the Grand Canal and tells a story about the evolution of the centuries-old waterway.

Renowned composer Tan Dun will conduct the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra to play Buddha Passion: An Audible Silk Road on New Year's Eve. Tan created the composition in 2018 and adapted it to Chinese instruments for the orchestra earlier this year. To adapt the piece to Chinese instruments, Tan studied the music scenes depicted in murals of the Mogao Caves in Gansu province and made changes according to the sounds of folk instruments, as well as the performance styles of individual artists from the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra.

On Sept 3, the Shanghai Culture Square announced its latest "annual hits" performance plan, consisting of 47 shows for five productions to be staged from November to January in 2022. The productions include musicals in Chinese－Romeo and Juliet, Into the White Night and Fan Letter, and two Chinese dramas, The Dream of the Red Chamber, and The Yellow Storm.

Fei Yuanhong, artistic director of the Shanghai Culture Square, the leading venue for musical performances in Shanghai, said on Sept 3, "we have entered a new period when Chinese actors and actresses perform musicals for Chinese audiences".