Best bets

National Ballet Britain - The Great Gatsby

Date: Feb 3-5 - 7:30 pm+

Venue: National Center for the Performing Arts

Price: 220-1,200 yuan

A new full-length story ballet based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, choreographed by David Nixon, is the perfect project for this energetic, enthusiastic ensemble - the characters are strong, the locations distinctive, the atmosphere unforgettable. But Gatsby adaptations are tricky to pull off - witness the ambivalence attending the release of Baz Luhrmann's new movie version - at least in part because the novel, despite its obviously filmic qualities, actually derives much of its effect from an intense evocation of the intangible and invisible: moods, feelings, suspicions. Moreover, the characters are hard-to-nail cocktails of mannerisms, some of which - like Daisy's murmur - cannot be translated into dance.

BBC Documentary Concert - Frozen Planet

Date: Feb 27-28 - 2:30 pm/7:30 pm

Venue: Shanghai Children Art Theater

Price: 80-480 yuan

An evocative live orchestral music with breathtaking HD images of "the majestic and frozen wilderness of the Polar Regions" from the landmark BBC television series, which is a unique audio-visual feast. Frozen Planet accompanied by the George Fenton's well-received score and performed by Shanghai Opera House Orchestra.

Henry IV Part II by Royal Shakespeare Company

Date: Feb 26 - 7:15 pm

Venue: Shanghai Grand Theater

Price: 162-880 yuan

To mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death in 2016, Great Britain's famous Royal Shakespeare Company is coming on its first major tour to Shanghai with highly acclaimed new productions of Henry IV Part I, Part II and Henry V - which paint an epic, comic and thrilling vision of a country. Shakespeare's Henry trilogy charts Prince Hal's journey from his rebellious youth to famed warrior king Henry V, as a rich panorama of medieval English society unfolds between dingy alehouse and cloistered court.

Britain Gecko Theater Company - Missing

Date: Jan 23 - 7:30 pm

Venue: Beijing Tianqiao Performance Art Center

Price: 99-680 yuan

Gecko is an award-winning and internationally-acclaimed physical theatre company, led by Artistic Director Amit Lahav. Amit has created an organic devising process that oscillates between intense periods of experimentation, making brave leaps, learning and failing and including choreography, writing, storyboarding and reflection. Every stage includes sonic and technical development alongside the choreography. With an expanding ensemble of international performers and makers, Gecko works across diverse age groups, nationalities and forms. The company tours nationally and internationally and continues to develop strong partnerships around the world.

Chicago Symphony Orchestra with Riccardo Muti in Beijing

Date: Jan 25-26 - 7:30 pm

Venue: National Center for the Performing Arts

Price: 280-1,680 yuan

Born in Naples, Italy, Riccardo Muti is one of the preeminent conductors of our day. In 2010, when he became the tenth music director of the world-renowned Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), he had more than forty years of experience at the helm of Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (1968-1980), the Philharmonia Orchestra (1972-1982), the Philadelphia Orchestra (1980-1992), and Teatroalla Scala (1986-2005). The program includes Symphony No 5 by Beethoven and Symphony No 1 by Mahler on Jan 25, and Classical Symphony by Prokofiev, Concert Music for Strings and Brass by Hindemith, and Symphony No 4 by Tchaikovsky.

NCPA Opera Production La Gioconda in Beijing

Date: Jan 27-31 - 7:30 pm

Venue: National Center for the Performing Arts

Price: 100-880 yuan

With a natural talent, Daniel Oren developed his own particular interest for the Opera by the great Leonard Bernstein who in 1968 chose him, just thirteen years old, as lead vocalist in his Chichester Psalms's for the inauguration of the Israel Television; in reality it was the mother to start the young Daniel, still at an early age, a complete musical education by studying not only the piano and cello, but with singing and harmony. Maestro Oren then perfected his studies in Europe, devoting himself almost exclusively to conducting and taken part in 1975, winning, the prestigious competition 'Herbert von Karajan' for young conductors: from that moment the young artist began an international career.