18 | Tuesday, September 24, 2019 LIFE CHINA DAILY HONG KONG EDITION Lullaby for a hectic world

The Beijing Music Festival will open with an outdoor staging of a groundbreaking Max Richter piece that literally encourages the audience to fall asleep, Chen Nan reports.

t’s not altogether usual for visi­ secutive days, each one for a single tors to spend the whole night audience and only lasting for half out on the Great Wall, but an hour, to celebrate its Chinese that’s just what is about to hap­ premiere. Ipen at the opening concert of the “Eight is a super adventurous Beijing Music Festival on Oct 4 — idea, which combines the firsthand when German­born British com­ experience of virtual reality with poser Max Richter performs his music. We are pushing the bounda­ groundbreaking eight­hour work, ries of music and technology,” says Sleep. Dutch composer Van der Aa in a The performance will begin on video shared by the Beijing Music Friday, October 4, at 10 pm and will Festival on social media. wrap up at 6 am the next morning. “The form of musical expression Providing beds, the event organiz­ has developed very quickly — and ers will encourage the audience to faster than we ever imagined. The sleep out at the foot of the Shuiguan audience will get a glimpse of how section of the Badaling Great Wall music has developed up until today in Beijing and soak up the music. through this piece. It will be a sur­ A string quintet from the Ameri­ prise,” says Yu. can Contemporary Music Ensemble With 2019 marking the 260th and British soprano Grace David­ anniversary of the death of Ger­ son will perform the piece with man­British baroque composer Richter, who is making his first per­ and the formance on the Chinese mainland 150th anniversary of the death of accompanying them on the piano. French composer Hector Berlioz, “The piece, Sleep, has been per­ the Beijing Music Festival will pay formed all around the world but homage to the two legends with this will be the first time that it will their , Xerxes and La Damna­ be played at the Great Wall. I will tion de Faust. sleep there myself. It will be a On Oct 17, conductor David Stern, unique listening experience to fit a son of the late legendary violinist full night’s rest,” says conductor Yu , will lead a of Long, who founded the Beijing Handel’s Xerxes with the Music Festival in 1998. French ensemble, Opera Fuoco. According to Tu Song, program On Oct 20, 23 and 25, the Mahler director of the festival, Sleep pre­ Chamber led by Russian miered in 2015 in Berlin. Last year, pianist­conductor Vladimir Ashke­ the piece was staged outdoors for nazy will give three concerts at the the first time in Los Angeles’ Grand Poly Theater, with a repertoire that Park for two nights. includes two pieces by the British “Performing Sleep at the Great composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, Wall, such an iconic location, is a Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas very special opportunity,” says Tu. Tallis and Songs of Travel. “On Oct 5, the sun will rise at On Oct 21, will around 6:13 am and the final hour conduct the Shanghai Symphony of the composition accompanies Orchestra and the Philharmonic the sunrise when the audience Chorus of Tokyo in a performance wakes up.” of La Damnation de Faust by Ber­ He also notes that the piece was lioz, 17 years after the Chinese debut actually designed to send the listen­ of the work was performed under er to sleep and the composer adopt­ the baton of Yu in 2002. ed a scientific approach to writing Other highlights will see Slovak it. The composer worked with neu­ coloratura soprano Edita Grubero­ roscientist David Eagleman to align va make her debut during the Bei­ the music with the human brain jing Music Festival on Oct 9 at the and the body’s natural sleep National Center for the Performing rhythms. Clockwise from top: The will present three concerts at Poly Theater during the upcoming Beijing Music Festi­ Arts, along with the China Philhar­ “This performance is more than a val, led by Russian pianist­conductor ; German­born British composer Max Richter; conductor , founder of the monic Orchestra conducted by normal long concert or any other festival; and American soprano Renee Fleming will perform at the festival. PHOTOS BY JIANG DONG / CHINA DAILY AND PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY Peter Valentovic, and a special form of entertainment. It’s about arrangement of the opera Tales of music, which becomes something Hoffmann by Jacques Offenbach else. It’s an eight­hour lullaby,” Tu free educational events, from chil­ “Every year, as we develop the fes­ internationally acclaimed compos­ generation of internationally performed entirely by children on says. dren’s concerts to master classes tival program, we try to introduce ers will take to the festival’s stage, acclaimed composers, Du won the Oct 19. Celebrating its 22th year, the 2019 and lectures. something rarely seen,” says Tu, a including , the first Chinese prize for Angel’s Bone, which took The festival will close with a con­ Beijing Music Festival, with the Over the past two decades, Yu has former clarinet player who joined winner of the Pulitzer Prize for her seven years to accomplish. cert given by American soprano theme of “timeless music into the established a rich artistic founda­ the festival in 2008. “Exploring a music, who will perform her opera Jointly commissioned by the Bei­ Renee Fleming, alongside maestro future,” will stage 22 performances tion for the Beijing Music Festival. new style of with Angel’s Bone, and composer Michel jing Music Festival and the Holland Yu Long and the China Philharmon­ over Oct 4­28, including operas, Beginning in 2018, the new artistic today’s most cutting­edge express­ van der Aa, who will perform his lat­ Festival, Eight is a fusion of music, ic Orchestra at the Forbidden City symphonic concerts, recitals, cham­ director Zou Shuang has succeeded ive forms is part of our mission to est work of mixed­reality musical theater, visual art and virtual reali­ Concert Hall. ber music concerts and virtual reali­ in incorporating more inclusive and incorporate new ideas with new theater, Eight, which will be making ty. From Oct 10 to 27, the Beijing ty music experiences. The festival avant­garde artistic elements into concepts into the festival.” its Asia debut. Music Festival will present nearly Contact the writer at will also present more than a dozen the festival to impress audiences. This year, a young generation of As a leading figure in China’s new 900 performances of it over 18 con­ [email protected] Theater festival explores new dimensions in stage performances

By ZHANG KUN in Shanghai debut at the ACT festival went on to Toshiki Okada. A founder of the the­ [email protected] tour the country and achieve com­ atrical company chelfitsch, Okada mercial success.” has been a representative figure of The ongoing ACT Shanghai Inter­ For example, Andre and Dorine, a contemporary theater in Japan. “We national Theatre Festival has partici­ silent theater show from Spain, is in would like to invite a proper theater pants from nine countries, with a Shanghai celebrating its 13th tour of production by Okada, but the com­ total of eight plays and one installa­ China, with more than 100 perform­ pany could not make it this year,” tion project at the Shanghai Dramat­ ances, since it was first shown at the Huang says. Instead, the artist, in ic Arts Center. festival in 2011. collaboration with video designer The festival, which started on Sept The opening production this year Shimpei Yamada, created a projec­ 12 and lasts through Saturday, has is Germinal from France, which won tion of video images that interact the theme of “sip of new dimen­ high praise at the Festival d’Avignon with viewers as they pass by. sions”. It will mark the Chinese debut a few years ago. Huang praised the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center, of seven overseas productions and play as “one of my top five plays which reopened in June after an will cover a wide range of styles and among the more than 1,000 theater 18­month building refurbishment, media, such as dance and physical shows I have experienced”. The pro­ claims to be China’s first open thea­ theater, object theater and hypertext duction features four people in a ter. Exhibitions are presented in structure, a format that enables the closed space, where they accumulate almost all open spaces in the theater audience to make choices and direct knowledge, learn about science and building. “We would love to see peo­ the narrative. The festival, founded build a society. “There is lots of Two theater productions appearing at the ACT Shanghai International Theatre Festival: The Bride (left) ple come in and spend time here, in 2005, was conceived to introduce humor, and philosophical ideas are by choreographer and dancer Luo Yuebing, and My Great Work, an object theater show by David Espi­ even when no performances are tak­ new theatrical explorations from all presented in a lighthearted fashion,” nosa from Spain. PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY ing place in any of the three theater over the world to China. Huang says. “It is about the forma­ spaces,” says Chen Li, the public rela­ “As a nonprofit festival, we are tion of human civilization, as well as tions manager of SDAC. dedicated to showing audiences and what keeps us bound together and models and figurines, building a uto­ child’s game, the play will “evoke in the ancient Chinese book Shan Aside from the Eizo­Theater industry insiders in China the latest communication between people.” pia of his own.” memories, have emotional depth Hai Jing (The Classic of Mountains installation, an exhibition showcas­ in experimental theater, develop­ A new form of theater will be Because of the scale of the per­ and will be interesting for sophisti­ and Seas) and transposes them in a ing the history of Shanghai’s theater ment trends in the sector and high introduced at this year’s event: My formance, each show will play to no cated audiences”. contemporary urban setting. art development is presented on the quality shows,” says Huang Jiadai, Great Work by David Espinosa from more than 25 audience members. The Chinese play Shan Hai Jing, During the festival, visitors to the sixth floor of the venue, while on the curator of the ACT festival since Spain is an object theater show “with “No dialogue or speech is needed which premiered on Wednesday, is a second and third floors of the Shang­ floor above, a new media exhibition 2016. “We are happy to find that, in no actors or scripts”, Huang says. “It and you will have no difficulty fol­ physical theater production directed hai Dramatic Arts Center will be able by a group named LoopWave is also the past few years, quite a few pro­ is literally one person in the middle lowing the narrative,” Huang says. by Rich Rusk. The play takes the fan­ to see the Eizo­Theater installation ongoing and will run through Oct ductions that made their Chinese of the room playing with miniature Although it may look like a lonely tastic fairies and beasts documented by Japanese playwright and director 27.