Best bets
Shanghai Kunqu Opera - The Peony Pavilion
Date: Dec 8 - 7:30
Venue: Lyceum Theater, Shanghai Price: 80-280 yuan
It is a play written by Tang Xianzu in the Ming Dynasty and first performed in 1598 at the Pavilion of Prince Teng. One of Tang's Four Dreams, it has traditionally been performed as a Kunqu opera, but Chuan and Gan opera versions also exist. It is by far the most popular play of the Ming Dynasty, and is the primary showcase of the guimendan role type. All Kun theater troupes include it in their repertoire. Recent adaptations have sought to inject new life into one of China's best-loved classical operas, although such efforts have met with opposition from the Kunqu opera traditionalists.
Dance Ballet By The German National Youth Ballet
Date: Dec 5 - 7:30
Venue: Tianqiao Theater, Beijing
Price: 50-900 yuan
Germany's first ever National Youth Ballet has been founded at the beginning of the 2011/2012 theater season. With its own repertoire comprising mainly works by young choreographers, the group will predominantly dance in new spaces - not theaters, but schools, museums, nursing homes and even prisons; spaces in which dance does not usually attract much interest. The National Youth Ballet aims to demonstrate that dance has a social relevance creating a spirit of community and a sense of unity, focusing especially on a young audience.
Clean Bandit Live in Shanghai
Date: Dec 12 - 7:30 pm
Venue: Shanghai Plus Space
Price: 480-680 yuan
Clean Bandit, founded in 2009, is an electronic quartet from Cambridge, UK. Their single Rather Be, a collaboration with Jess Glynne, featuring elements of both classical and dance music, has become a monster hit ever since it was released in 19th January 2014. They scored their first UK Singles Chart-topping single with Rather Be. It remained at the top of the chart for four weeks. In 2015, Rather Be won the Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording.
Multimedia Body Play - LEO
Date: Dec 8-11 - 8 pm
Venue: Hongqiao Tiandi Square, Shanghai
Price: 80-580 yuan
LEO is a mind-bending, funny, surreal, and surprisingly touching work that challenges the senses and tests perceptions of reality through the clever interplay of live performance and video projection. LEO leaves audience members wondering which way is up and which way is down. Stuck in a room with seemingly nowhere to go, Leo tests the limits of his strange, new world and makes the delightful discovery that he is, in fact, superhuman. Leo can scale walls like Spiderman, dance on the ceiling like Fred Astaire and meditate in mid-air like an Indian guru. Over ten years in the making, Leo challenges the laws of nature.
The Phantom of Opera in Beijing
Date: Nov 11-Jan 3, 2016 - 7:30 pm
Venue: Beijing Tianqiao Performing Arts Center
Price: 380-1,180 yuan
The Phantom of Opera is one of the representative musicals by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Adapted from French Writer Gaston Leroux's novel, the musical was premiered by Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman in the UK at London's Queen's Theater on Oct 9, 1986. Now the play has 16 production versions in the world. More than 1 million people in 145 cities of 27 countries around the world have seen this play.
Da Vinci - The Genius Exhibition
Date: Dec 4-April 7, 2006 - 10 am
Venue: Hongqiao Tiandi Square, Shanghai
Price: 25 yuan
The interactive experience immerses guests in Leonardo's timeless brilliance through full-scale interpretations of the mastermind's inventions and unparalleled studies of his iconic art. Da Vinci - The Genius demonstrates the full scope of Leonardo da Vinci's remarkable genius as a painter, inventor, artist, anatomist, sculptor, engineer, musician and architect. The exhibition features 17 compelling themed areas of Da Vinci's work, offering visitors an unmatched look inside the mind of the ultimate Renaissance man who laid the groundwork for some of modern society's most influential inventions, such as the helicopter, airplane, automobile, submarine, parachute and bicycle.
(China Daily 12/05/2015 page20)
