Big year for European opera

A country at the opera

Beijing Music Festival salutes Verdi and Wagner

One has to face up to the fact that artistic conservatism is the bane of the majority of opera stages in China, but traditional staging is what is embraced by government departments. Because most opera houses are either substantially subsidized - including the NCPA and China Opera House where fancy staging is most likely to be seen - or self-reliant - like Guangzhou Opera House and Shanghai Grand Theater where conventional staging sells better - any great risk onstage is viewed as troublesome.

The three major Verdi entries produced in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou fell into this category. Placido Domingo made his China operatic debut in Nabucco, an NCPA production, in May. US conductor Eugene Kohn led the orchestra.

It was followed in September by the Royal Opera House Covent Garden's legendary 1994 production of La Traviata directed by Richard Eyre at Guangzhou Opera House. It was the opera's second Chinese production, and was conducted by Daniel Oren with Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra in the pit.

Like Lorin Maazel, Daniel Oren might call China his second home. He then conducted the China premiere of Verdi's early experimental Attila in November in Shanghai, a co-production between the Palace of Arts Budapest and Shanghai Grand Theater directed by Csaba Kael with simplistic and effective staging.

How could one ever miss Benjamin Britten? If 2013 was a big moment for Wagner and Verdi, it proved a grand year for Britten.

With his community opera Noye's Fludde presented in its first ever outdoor setting in the financial district in Shanghai in July, two of his groundbreaking works received China premieres in October. They are Peter Grimes conducted by British talent Duncan Ward with the Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra in a concert version at BMF, The War Requiem conducted by Charles Dutoit with Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and London Voices and a trio of brilliant singers at Shanghai Oriental Art Center and later in Beijing.

I was at the concert that night in Shanghai. It was Oct 3. The neighboring Century Park had fireworks at 8 pm for the National Day Holiday, as it does every year.

As Lacrimosa was just about to fade away, the grumbling of the fireworks, sounding like a gun salute, sounded outside the auditorium just as the music was dying out.

A war requiem to its core.

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