The Shanghai Grand Theater(SGT) announced its 2019-2020 performance season on Aug 7, highlighting the top 10 projects that have been recommended by artists and critics.

The upcoming season, which is titled “When We First Met”, will be the theater’s 21st and Zhang Xiaoding, the general manager of the SGT, said that the performances will “take audiences on a journey back to the starting point…to discover the original love we felt for art and the theater.”

Among the projects shown will be Tchaikovsky’s epic opera Eugene Onegin, presented by the Moscow State Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theatre on Sep 11, 13 and 14. The renowned theater made its first China tour in 1954. The evening premiere on Sep 11 will also markthe beginning of SGT’s new season.

As next year would mark the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, maestro conductor Xu Zhong will be collaborating with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra and Chinese soloists to present Beethoven’s complete Piano Concertos in two consecutive concerts on May 5 and 6. From June 23-24 and June 26-27, they will play a full cycle of Beethoven’s nine symphonies.

Xu will also be conducting Shanghai Opera House’s production Turandotby Puccini from Dec 13-15. The production will be directed by Roberto Ando, featuring Chinese soprano He Hui, tenor Han Peng and Carlo Ventre from Uruguay.