Best bets

Fabio Luisi & The Danish National Symphony Orchestra

Date: March 14-7:30 pm

Venue: National Centre for the Performing Arts

Grammy and ECHO Klassik Award-winner Fabio Luisi serves as General Music Director of the Zurich Opera and Principal Conductor of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra. After concluding a 6-year tenure as Principal Conductor of the Metropolitan Opera last season, he launches a new appointment as Music Director of Florence's Opera di Firenze this coming spring. The Danish National Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1925 as part of the Danish Broadcasting Corporation under the motto: "The best-only the best." Today, it is one of the leading symphony orchestras in Europe performing with the world's leading conductors and soloists. The strong and straightforward personality of the Symphony Orchestra is rooted in its close relationship with Danish and Nordic music, and it is the world's foremost Carl Nielsen-orchestra.

NCPA Drama Hamlet

Date: March 3-10-7:30 pm

Venue: Beijing Comedy Theater

"To be or not to be, that is a question." For more than 400 years, Hamlet, the protagonist of William Shakespeare's tragedy, has enthralled countless dramatists and scholars. The play tells a tale about how Hamlet, the prince of Denmark, revenged his dead father, thus unfolding a real-life picture of England and Europe. It is a profound tragedy teeming with vivid characters through superb artistry as the highest achievement of Renaissance literature. On the 400th anniversary of his death, NCPA drama A Midsummer Night's Dream and opera Macbeth have been put on show. To explore the quintessence of this drama maestro, NCPA brings us his other plays as well, especially much-expected Hamlet.