STAGE

Ballet feast: The Bolshoi Theatre, a name that conjures up visions of top ballet and opera performances, will meet the Chinese audience on March 22 at the Great Hall of the People to raise the curtain of the 2006 Russian Year in China.

As Moscow's world-famous hub of opera and ballet, the theatre this time gives China its complete line-up of orchestra, corps de ballet, opera and choir.

One of the leading ballet and opera companies in the world, the theatre was founded in 1776, when the first regular troupe in Moscow was organized by Peter Urussov and his partner Mikhail Medoks. Of great significance to the history of the theatre was the opera and ballet legacy of the Russian composer Piotr Tchaikovsky, whose operas are placed on the golden record of the theatre's repertoire.

The orchestra of the theatre is also one of the most renowned in the world.

The theatre visited China in 1959, 1989 and 2001, and each time it has been warmly received by Chinese audiences.

Time: 7:30 pm, March 22

Place: The Great Hall of the People, Tian'anmen Square

Tel: 6406-8888

Dance drama: Ryuzanji & Company from Japan brings their dance drama "Tranquil Songs" to Beijing.

Conscious of the collision of the Eastern and Western culture, Show Ryuzanji, founder of the company, has engaged in the revival of classic works and adapted them for the modern stage.

Time: 7:30 pm, March 21-23

Place: The Opera House of People's Liberation Army, 60 Deshengmennei Dajie, Jishuitan, Haidian District

Tel: 6406-9999

Children's drama: Fairytale "Nian" will be staged to remind the children of their happy Spring Festival memories.

In this play, Nian is a lovely little monster who wants to make friends. On the eve of Spring Festival, Nian comes to Hulu and Haqian, two protagonists in the fairy series, and wants to see them in the New Year.

But the two brothers try to stop him. With the help of Hulu and Haqian, the brothers come to understand Nian and become good friends with him.

Time: 7:30 pm, March 25

Place: Holiday Classics Small Theatre, Fourth Floor of China Children Theatre, 64 Dong'anmen Dajie, Wangfujing

Tel: 6521-1425

Russian comedy: The two-act ironic comedy "Even Homer Sometimes Nods" written by Aleksandr Nikolayevich Ostrovsky, will be staged in the capital performed by Russian dramatists.

The play unfolds as it tries to find the route to success in the world of officialdom and how to establish and destroy one's reputation.

With representative ironic and sharp language, this drama looks at these issues through a young man's search for success.

Time: 7:30 pm, March 24 and 25

Place: Poly Theatre, Dongsi Shitiao

Tel: 6506-5345, 6506-5343

Joyful jugglers: The China Acrobatic Troupe is staging a night variety show at the Tiandi Theatre, where the seemingly impossible becomes a reality, where performers spin plates and juggle umbrellas.

Contortionists show incredible feats of flexibility as acrobats leap through the air. Integrating superlative juggling, unicycling, balancing and jumping through hoops with the finest ancient Chinese dancing, the star-studded cast is set to impress.

Time: 7:15 pm, daily

Place: 10 Dongzhimen Nandajie, Chaoyang District

Tel: 6502-3984

All-year acrobatics: Chaoyang Theatre is one of the few Beijing theatres to present acrobatics all year round.

Top acrobats invited from all over the country perform for Chinese and foreign audiences. The programme features trick cycling, leaping through hoops and Chinese magic tricks. Some of the artists have won prizes in international competitions.

Time: 7:15 pm, daily

Place: 36 Dongsanhuan Bei Lu, Chaoyang District

Tel: 6507-2421, 6507-1818

CONCERTS

Feel the mood: Jonathan Lee will host his 2006 concert in Beijing.

As the master of music in Taiwan, Lee is famous for his unique annotation of love, mood and life. He represents the creative spirit of the past 20 years in Taiwan and many renowned singers like Sarah Chan (Chen Shuhua), Sandy Lam (Lin Yilian), Emil Chau (Zhou Huajian) and Karen Mok (Mo Wenwei) draw great inspiration from Lee's works.

Time: 7:30 pm, March 24, 25

Place: Capital Gymnasium, Baishiqiao Lu, Haidian District

Tel: 6835-4020

Commemorative show: To mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, the founder of modern prose drama, a concert titled "Nora's Songs" will be given.

With pianist Wolfgang Plagge, violinist Annar Folles and soprano Gao Xia, the Norwegian Ibsen Trio will present the classic works of the celebrated playwright.

Time: 7:30 pm, March 20

Place: Peking University Concert Hall

Tel: 6275-2279, 6275-9637

Chamber music: The chamber concert series of China Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra will greet audiences with a woodwind quintet, a string quartet plus Bach's piano concerto and suite.

Time: 7:30 pm, March 25

Place: The Concert Hall of the Central Conservatory of Music, 43 Baojiajie, Xicheng District

Tel: 6641-4759, 6642-5744

Pop star: Singer and composer Emil Chau, one of the most admired music idols in China and Southeast Asia, will perform a solo concert in Beijing.

Chau was born in Hong Kong and attended college in Taiwan. He has released more than 30 albums in Mandarin, Cantonese and English.

His platinum albums such as "You Make Me Happy and Sad," "Flowery Heart," "Music Brings Us Together" and "Emil & Friends" have brought him numerous awards in Singapore, and China's Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Time: 7:30 pm, March 31

Place: Capital Gymnasium, Baishiqiao Lu, Haidian District

Tel: 6833-5552

EXHIBITIONS

Blast from the past: An exhibition entitled "Treasures of the World's Culture - the British Museum after 250 years," is under way at the Capital Museum.

The exhibits, 272 in all, are highlights of the art treasures collected by the museum from different periods ranging from ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, from the Middle Ages to modern times, and from different areas of East Asia, South Asia, Oceania, America, Africa and Europe.

Covering a long span of human history from 2 million years ago to the end of the 20th century, the exhibits, including sculptures, paintings, jewellery, gold, bronzes, stone artefacts and ceramics, represent the evolution and development of humankind.

As the world's oldest national public museum, the British Museum, founded in 1753, has developed a reputation for curatorial exchanges and skills sharing, and has been working tirelessly with museums around the world to promote universal understanding through the arts, natural history and science.

Time: 9 am-5 pm, March 18-June 5

Place: 16 Fuxingmenwai Dajie, Xicheng District

Tel: 6337-0491/2

Donated works: Zhao Yannian, a renowned Chinese print-maker and art educator, has donated 575 works of prints, sketches he created between 1938 and 2004, to the National Art Museum of China. A total of 100 selected pieces from his donated works are now on show at the museum.

Zhao is a retired professor with the Hangzhou-based China Academy of Fine Arts and chair of Hangzhou branch of the Chinese Artists Association in East China's Zhejiang Province.

He is best known for his illustrations for popular Chinese novels such as "Ah Q," "Kong Yiji," "Lovers' Departure" and "Diary of A Madman," all penned by Lu Xun, a great figure of Chinese modern literature.

Time: 9 am-5 pm, until March 18

Place: 1 Wusi Dajie

Tel: 8403-3500

Solo art show: Guo Xiyuan is staging his first retrospective exhibition at the National Art Museum of China.

On display are 80 Chinese paintings, 20 calligraphic works, 20 Chinese seals, and 10 stone sculptures created by Guo over the past decades.

An art professor with Shenzhen University in South China's Guangdong Province, Guo once studied Chinese painting art under the guidance of master Chinese artists Liu Haisu and Chen Dayu in the 1940s in Nanjing, capital of East China's Jiangsu Province.

Guo is very skilful at portraying birds, flowers and landscapes with Chinese ink and brushes.

Time: 9 am-5 pm, until March 30

Place: 1 Wusi Dajie

Tel: 8403-3500

Space creativity: The National Art Museum of China is showing the ingenious creations of space and dimension created by one of Taiwan's prominent sculptors, Shiau Jon-Jen.

Works on show are mostly carved out of a single wood panel. By rearranging those separate pieces, Shiau successfully created a three-dimensional space of creativity.

Shiau, a sculptor who made his name in the late 1980s for his wood creations, is the art director of Yuzi Paradise, a land art park engaged in cavern art and contemporary sculpture in Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Time: 9 am-5 pm, until March 25

Place: 1 Wusi Dajie

Tel: 8403-3500

(China Daily 03/18/2006 page8)