Landmark global performances highlight 24th Shanghai Arts Festival

The 24th China Shanghai International Arts Festival will be held from October 17 to November 27 this year.

The opening performance, on October 17, at the Shanghai Grand Theater, will feature True Elegance of Supreme Harmony: The Kunqu Opera Classics from the Imperial Palace (Season One), co-produced by the Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe and The Palace Museum.

The closing concert, on November 27 at the Jaguar Shanghai Symphony Hall, will be led by Daniel Harding together with the Accademia di Santa Cecilia. This marks the orchestra's first visit to China under its new music director, with the century-old "Italian rose" presenting masterpieces by Verdi, Ravel, and Rachmaninoff.

This year's festival will comprise eight major sections, with more than 500 events totaling over 1,200 performances and exhibitions. Among the 55 headline productions, nearly 60 percent are international projects, and almost 90 percent will be premiering in Shanghai.

Highlights include: Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra taking on a challenge unprecedented in performance history – presenting the complete cycle of Mahler's symphonies within just five days; and Teodor Currentzis and MusicAeterna staging a "wordless" version of Der Ring des Nibelungen.

Other major programs include:

• The Bavarian State Opera bringing its full ensemble for a six-day opera gala
• The Stuttgart Ballet's Romeo and Juliet
• Bells and Spells, a collaboration between two generations of the Chaplin family's female artists
• Performances by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, soprano Renée Fleming, and other world-renowned stars.

These productions will be staged across 16 professional venues, including the Shanghai Grand Theater, Shanghai Oriental Art Center, and Bocom New Bund 31 Performing Arts Center, making this festival the "only one of its kind in the country."

Notably, the festival has invited artists from China and abroad to serve as "Art Ambassadors." Among them are: Xi Meijuan (奚美娟), chairwoman of the Shanghai Federation of Literary and Art Circles; Gu Haohao (谷好好), director of the Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe; internationally acclaimed composer and conductor Tan Dun (谭盾); celebrated pianist Kong Xiangdong(孔祥东); Tamas Detrich, artistic director of the Stuttgart Ballet; violinist Joshua Bell; and 11 other distinguished artists.

This year, the "Rising Artists' Work" program, overseen by a new 21-member art committee from seven countries and regions, has attracted 226 submissions from 19 countries and regions, including the United States and Germany. It will showcase six stage productions, two visual arts projects, and one specially recommended work.

In addition, the festival will launch innovative public-benefit activities by transforming the "city backdrop" into theatrical settings and creating a "theater without walls." Through 60 productions and over 90 performances, nearly 2,000 artists from more than 30 countries and regions will bring global artistic resources to Shanghai's districts, activating iconic urban landmarks, parks, and public spaces with art.