Shanghai Daily news
Lots of world-class performers and performances are planned for the
Shanghai International Arts Festival which opens in the city tomorrow night, but
some critics have criticized organizers for not giving the festival an
identifiable theme, writes Michelle Qiao.
Peking Opera play ¡°The Prince¡¯s Revenge¡±(left) and a performance by
Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Myung-Whun Chung, are among the
highlights at this year¡¯s Shanghai International Arts Festival.
Once again, the upcoming Seventh Shanghai International Arts Festival has a
kaleidoscope of arts-themed events and shows on offer for the city's culturally
minded residents and visitors.
The month-long festival begins tomorrow night
and features 46 performances by Chinese and overseas artists, dozens of
exhibitions, seminars, musical competitions and an art fair.
Australian
choreographer Graeme Murphy's dance drama "Mulan," a collaboration between the
Shanghai Song and Dance Ensemble and the Sydney Dance Company, will kick off the
festival at the Shanghai Oriental Arts Center in Pudong.
Also tomorrow night,
Chinese baritone Liao Changyong will sing the key role of Figaro in the Rome
Opera's production of Rossini's "The Barber of Seville" at the Shanghai Grand
Theater. The festival will end on November 18 with an acrobatic version of the
classic ballet "Swan Lake" at the Shanghai Grand Theater.
Other highlights are concerts by the Berlin Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra
under the baton of Simon Rattle, a cello concert by Yo-Yo Ma as soloist, a
dramatic dance version of "A Dream of Red Mansions" by The Cloud Gate Dance
Theater from Taiwan and a concert presented by Sir Roger Norrington and the
Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Although the program list has been
slimmed down from last year's 60 performances, the arts festival brochure is as
thick as ever.
Inside the striking cover featuring a ballet dancer in a
rainbow of colorful musical notes are accounts of an Egyptian cultural week, a
Yunnan culture week and details about every cultural event from the Berlin
Philharmonic concerts to an outdoor concert in the Yuyuan Garden. However, after
reading through the brochure, local music critic Wang Shu says he feels a bit
lost.
"It seems that the festival has no theme, spirit or tradition to pass
down, just the stringing of lots of performances together," says Wang.
He
notes that many famous arts festivals in the world have impressive themes, such
as the Edinburgh Arts Festival known for drama and the Donaueschinger Festival
noted for contemporary music.
Lack of innovation and strategic promotion have
been long-term drawbacks that have bugged the local arts festival.
Veteran
Chinese conductor Yu Long, who is also artistic director of the Beijing
International Music Festival (usually staged at the same time with the Shanghai
event) said that the influence of an arts festival depends on the quality of its
program, not its scale or the number of productions.
He said a big number of
performances will distract attention, weaken impressions and blur any theme. Yu
has made the Beijing festival recognized around the world.
The recently
concluded Second Shanghai Piano Festival at the Conservatory of Music was a hit
partly because it had an impressive theme: the piano works of Franz
Liszt.
"An arts festival should have a coherent spirit but it can also have
variations inside this form," says Zhou Keng, vice director of the local
conservatory's Piano Department which organized the Second Shanghai Piano
Festival. "I plan to make 'Mozart' the theme for the Third Piano Festival next
October."
Wang adds that the festival should have a Shanghai character as its
theme.
"Shanghai has its own artistic character which is to mix every style
of art and culture from elsewhere," Wang says. "Shanghai hasn't much cultural
and historical roots (compared with other cities in the country and around the
world) but it has the gift of being able to absorb and digest everything that
come in from outside. For example, Sichuan food - Shanghainese have now created
a medium-hot Shanghai-style version of Sichuan food."
As the country's only
state-level arts festival, the festival is supposed to be a "platform for
artists from home and abroad to communicate." But still it has neither a theme
nor an artistic director.
The key to the success of any arts festival, apart
from factors like powerful sponsorship and the audience's level of artistic
appreciation, is to find a capable and qualified artistic director.
"An
artistic director should have a musical background and high administrative
skills," says Zhou, who worked in the United States for 15 years. "Arts
festivals involve the art of matching different styles of programs and artists
together. The organizers should have studied local market, understood the tastes
of the audience and matched the musicians and different instruments.
"It's
not an easy job to hold a large-scale festival. And the festival style is too
old-fashioned," he says. "I have studied successful arts festivals around the
world and found they have had strong promotion and they have invited both
celebrated and young artists with potential and they have reasonable budgets and
more variety in the performances."
Other highlights of this year's festival
include the ballet "Raymonda" to be staged by the Bayerische Staatsballett, the
Shakespeare comedy "The Taming of The Shrew" by the Teatr Dramatyczny of Warsaw,
the Spanish mime theater production "Sit" and a concert by the Cincinnati Pops
orchestra.
"We should also have an intensive arts education and
popularization program for ordinary citizens," says critic Wang. "We should also
invite foreign ensembles to cooperate with local conservatories and schools, to
give local young musicians more opportunities and help young people know and
love high-brow culture. That's what arts festivals are held for.
"Arts
festivals should make you feel that we citizens live in an artistic space, like
Paris," he adds. "We can cover the signature buildings at People's Square with
gigantic oil paintings, or build a wall on the Nanjing Road Pedestrian Mall on
which artists can paint whatever inspires them. The whole city can be turned
into a huge instrument."