NCPA Opera Das Rheingold

- About
- Synopsis
- Creative
- Artist
- Presenter
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About

The opera Das Rheingold is the first part of Wagner’s tetralogy Der Ring Des Nibelungen, which is based on Scandinavian and Nordic myths. The rest three parts are Die Walküre, Siegfried and Gotterdammerung. The work was premiered in Munich in 1869, and in 1876, Der Ring Des Nibelungen was performed in its entirety for the first time at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, which was built specifically for Der Ring Des Nibelungen.

As an important work in Wagner’s later oeuvre, Der Ring Des Nibelungen represents the pinnacle of his artistic career. As a tetralogy (composed of Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried and Gotterdammerung), Der Ring Des Nibelungen is hailed as Mount Everest in the opera world. It has exerted far-reaching influence on the development of music and arts. The entire work began to be written in 1848 and was completed in 1874, with a total of 26 years spent on its creation. Like Wagner’s other operas, Der Ring Des Nibelungen was created by Wagner himself, including everything from the script to the score. By combining literature with poetry, history with mythology, stage scenery with architecture and music with theatre, Wagner poured his persistent pursuit of “gesamtkunstwerk” into “musical theatre”, a comprehensive form of art. Considering the difficulty in interpreting music, the number of characters, the plentiful requirements of mythology for stage presentation, etc., Der Ring Des Nibelungen is undoubtedly a well-deserved “epic” masterwork and a touchstone for a theatre’s ability for opera production.

The Royal Opera House pointed out in the publication for its production of Der Ring Des Nibelungen, “The production of the opera Der Ring Des Nibelungen is a challenging thing that any influential opera house in the world cannot do unless they are ambitious to do so!” After successfully producing more than 70 operas, the NCPA has established a solid and reliable opera production system and accumulated a wealth of experience in opera production. We are confident and duty-bound to interpret the first part of this monumental work and take this as a new starting point to try the other three parts of Der Ring Des Nibelungen, a tetralogy, so as to have the NCPA’s version of Der Ring Des Nibelungen put on its entirety at an early date.

Among the four works encompassed in Der Ring Des Nibelungen, Das Rheingold is the shortest one, but it features the largest number of characters, each having distinct personality. As the performance lasts without interruption for two and a half hours, a multitude of characters in Der Ring Des Nibelungen, including the three Nymphs of the Rhine, the Nibelung dwarf Alberich, the gods who have different thoughts, the giant brothers Fafner and Fasolt, etc., have the tone set for their acting in this opera, then with their characters and personalities appearing throughout the tetralogy.

This round of performances will be put on under Music Director LÜ Jia’s baton, and Stefano Poda, a heavyweight director, will be in charge of the creative team. Poda successfully produced the French-language opera Roméo et Juliette for the NCPA. It made a stunning debut on the world opera stage, arousing a passion for the new aesthetic style created for opera performance by the NCPA. In the current collaboration, he will continue to present the magnificent poem with modern stage vocabulary and create a new aesthetic peak of stage presentation to build his world of gods.

Creative

Conductor: LÜ Jia

Director/ Choreographer/ Set & Costume & Lighting & Projection Designer: Stefano Poda

Artistic Collaboration/ Assistant Designer: Paolo Giani Cei

Cast

Wotan (Baritone): Egils Silins

Donner (Baritone): Robert Bork

Froh (Tenor): WANG Chuan

Loge (Tenor): Christian Franz

Fricka (Mezzo-soprano): Bettina Ranch

Freia (Soprano): Tanja Kuhn

Erda (Mezzo-soprano): NIU Shasha

Alberich (Baritone): Tomas Tomasson

Mime (Tenor): Arnold Bezuyen

Fasolt (Bass): Andrea Silvestrelli

Fafner (Bass): GUAN Zhijing*

Woglinde (Soprano): QIN Kanru

Wellgunde (Soprano): XU Xiaoying

Flosshilde (Mezzo-soprano): ZHANG Yajie

*NCPA Resident Singer

Synopsis

Here is the Rhine River, where the three nymphs, who are designated defenders of Rhine gold, are playing for fun in the water. The Nibelung dwarf Alberich breaks in accidentally and steals gold from under the water in an attempt to make the gold into a ring that will help to rule the world. At the top of mountains, the head of the gods, Wotan, asks giants Fafner and Fasolt to build him a castle by promising to reward them with Goddess of Youth, Freia. But when the construction is completed, Wotan feels reluctant to give up Freia. Together with God of Fire, Loge, Wotan convinces the giants to agree that he can ransom Freia with treasures.

Wotan and Loge sneak into the underground kingdom of the Nibelungs, ruled by Alberich, and capture Alberich alive by artifice. They also loot Alberich’s treasures and ring. Alberich, who has nothing at all and therefore flies into a rage out of humiliation, makes a curse that the ring will bring about inexhaustible jealousies and endless slaughters. Freia is saved, while the curse does come true - when they divide the spoils, Fafner kills Fasolt in public to get the ring. God of Thunder, Donner, calls on thunder and lightning to clear the sky and earth. Froh builds a rainbow bridge in the sky. Then Wotan leads the gods to their new residence, which is named “Castle Valhalla”. In the distance, the Nymphs of the Rhine are still murmuring sadly at the theft of the gold…

Creative

LÜ JiaConductor

LÜ Jia

LÜ Jia is Artistic Director of Music of National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), and Music Director of China NCPA Orchestra, and Music Director & Chief Conductor of the Macao Orchestra, prior to which he has acted as Music Director of the Verona Opera House, Italy, and Artistic Director of the Santa Cruz De Tenerife Symphony Orchestra, Spain.

LÜ Jia has conducted in as many as 2000 music concerts and operas in Europe and the United States. The world renowned opera houses and symphony orchestras he has cooperation with include: Teatro alla Scala, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra dell’ Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Lyon National Orchestra, etc.

As the first Asian conductor assuming the director position in national opera house of Italy, he is proclaimed as "a conductor who has a deeper understanding of Italian operas than Italians" by the Italian music commentators. In 2007, he was awarded "The President Cup" by the Italian President for his exceptional contribution and outstanding achievements made in Italy, followed by the acclaim as the "Best Opera" of Europe for the La gazza ladra that he conducted in "Rossini Opera Festival" held at Rossini's hometown Pesaro.

Stefano PodaDirector/ Choreographer/ Set & Costume & Lighting & Projection Designer

Stefano Poda

In his search for aesthetic and conceptual unity, Stefano Poda always combines direction, choreography, sets, costumes and lighting: his personal seal is founded on a visionary, multi-level imprint balanced between ancient images and contemporary art. On stage he speaks his own language, immediately recognisable, erasing the barriers between different genres and disciplines, in order to create an all-embracing experience, a world of total art. His way of doing theatre is not a mere story-telling, but a plastic, holistic dimension, able to blend together design, architecture, sculpture, painting, music and dramaturgy.

Stefano Poda was awarded the prestigious Prix Claude-Rostand by the Syndicat professionnel de la critique Théâtre, Musique et Danse for Ariane et Barbe-Bleue at Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse (2019) and the 43^rd Premio Franco Abbiati della critica musicale italiana by the National Association of Music Critics in Italy for La Juive, (direction, sets, costumes, lights, choreography) at the Teatro Regio Turino.

Stefano Poda’s worldwide career numbers about one hundred productions. His best known works include: Verdi’s Aida for the Centenary Arena di Verona Opera Festival 2023, worldwide broadcast, with sold out box office records and revival in 2024 and 2025; the inauguration of Verona Opera Festival 2024 with the new production of Nabucco; at the Rossini Opera Festival of Pesaro 2023 with the first modern performance of Eduardo e Cristina; Enescu’s Oedipe at the George Enescu Festival 2023; Tosca (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024) in the repertoire of the Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow; Dvořák’s Rusalka for the opening of 2022-2023 season at the Opéra National du Capitole de Toulouse (a co-production with The Israeli Opera); Alcina (2022, broadcast on ARTE TV) and Norma (2023) both at Opéra de Lausanne; different new productions of Nabucco, for the Teatro Colón of Buenos Aires (2022) and for the reopening of the Korea National Opera (2021, 2023); Les Contes d’Hoffmann co-produced by the Opéra de Lausanne, the Israeli Opera, the Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège and the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplat in Munich (2023); Roméo et Juliette (2018) and Rheingold (2024) at the China NCPA; Ariodante (2016) and Lucia di Lammermoor (2017, broadcast on ARTE TV) at the Opéra de Lausanne; Boris Godunov (2017) and Andrea Chénier (2015) at the Korea National Opera; Tristan und Isolde conducted by Zubin Mehta for the opening of the 77^th Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Festival (2014). His iconic production of Gounod’s Faust at the Teatro Regio Torino in 2015, a co-production with the Israeli Opera and the Opéra de Lausanne had been broadcast with great success in movie theatres across the world. This is true also for Puccini’s Turandot in 2018 and Massenet’s Thaïs in 2008, both of which were staged at Teatro Regio Torino.

Stefano Poda received the 2023 Premio Visconti from the MATIFF and the Fondazione Visconti. He was invited as special guest to the Prague Quadrennial 2019, the 14^th session of one of the largest international festival of theatre and stage design. In 2018, the Fifth Experts Forum on International Stage Arts in Beijing was dedicated to “Stefano Poda, Opera Design as total Art Work” at the Forbidden City. In 2019 he received the “Ombra della Sera” Lifetime Achievement Award for Performing Arts at the Roman Theatre of Volterra.

Paolo Giani CeiArtistic Collaboration/ Assistant Designer

Paolo Giani Cei

Paolo Giani Cei was born in Turin and since 2008 he has followed Stefano Poda’s productions all over the world, as a collaborating director and assistant on sets, costumes, lights, choreography. Among the numerous theatres in which he worked as a collaborator and dramaturg: the Rossini Festival of Pesaro, the Teatro Regio Torino, the Festival Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Verdi Festival Parma, the Teatro Colón of Buenos Aires, the Hungarian State Opera, the Arena di Verona Festival, the Teatro Lirico of Cagliari, the Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow, the Korea National Opera, the China National Centre for the Performing Arts, the National Opera of Bucharest, the Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse, the Opéra national du Rhin of Strasbourg, the Israeli Opera, the Opéra de Lausanne, the Teatro Municipal de São Paulo, the Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège.

In October 2014, at the Teatro Verdi di Padova, he designed the stage for Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, and in December 2015 he served as the director as well as set, costumes and lighting designer for Traviata, and in 2016 he took the same posts for Francis Poulenc’s opera La Voix Humaine, a production by the Ópera de Bellas Artes in Mexico City. Again for Padua in 2016 he prepares the new productions of I Capuleti e i Montecchi (a co-production with OperaEstate Festival Veneto held in Bassano) and Bohème (2017), Cenerentola (2018) Don Giovanni (2019) co-produced with the Teatro Sociale di Rovigo. Finally it is the turn of La Vedova Allegra (2021) at the Teatro Mario del Monaco in Treviso, as well as Il Barbiere di Siviglia (2023), in Padua and Treviso.

Among the most representative productions in which he was assistant director and dramaturg are: Aida for the centenary of the Verona Arena (2023), the La Juive at the Teatro Regio Torino (2023), Eduardo and Cristina at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, a new Tosca (2021) at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow; Nabucco for the opening of the 2020 season of the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires; Roméo et Juliette (2018) at the China NCPA in Beijing; Boris Godunov (2017) and Andrea Chénier (2015) at the Korea National Opera; Forza del Destino at the Verdi Festival in Parma 2014, Elisir d’Amore at the Opéra national du Rhin of Strasbourg (2016); Otello at the Hungarian State Opera(2015); Faust co-produced by the Teatro Regio Torino, the Israeli Opera and the Lausanne Opera in 2015; Turandot in 2018 at the Teatro Regio Torino; Thaïs in 2015 at the Teatro Municipal de Sāo Paulo; in Opéra de Lausanne Norma (2023), Lucia de Lammermoor (2017), Ariodante (2016) and a co-production of Les Contes d’Hoffmann (2019) in co-production with the Israeli Opera and the Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège; Ariane et Barbe-bleue in 2019 at the Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse was awarded the Prix Claude-Rostand of the French Syndicat professionnel de la critique Théâtre, Musique et Danse.

Artist

Egils Silinsas Wotan

Egils Silins

The bass-baritone Egils Silins was born in Latvia and graduated from the Latvian Academy of Music. After having his debut at the Latvian National Opera and winning ten international competitions he made his debut at the Wiener Staatsoper. He gained huge international acclaim singing the title role in Le Demon (Rubinstein) at the Bregenzer Festspiele, and furthermore performed at prestigious music festivals including The Tanglewood Music Festival, Savonlinna Opera Festival and Glyndebourne Festival.

Egils Silins performes regularly at many of the world’s leading opera houses, including Wiener Staatsoper, Teatro alla Scala, Metropolitan Opera, Hamburgische Staatsoper, ROH London, Semperoper Dresden, Deutsche and Staatsoper Berlin, Teatro del Liceu, Teatro Real, Mariinsky Theatre, Opernhaus Zürich, Chicago Opera, and Bayersiche Staatsoper München.

His repertoire (more than 90 roles) includes Holländer, Wotan (Rheingoldand Walküre), Wanderer (Siegfried), Amfortas-Klingsor (Parsifal), Telramund (Lohengrin), Kurwenal (Tristan und Isolde), Jochanaan (Salome), Barak (Woman without Shadows), Orest (Elektra), Demon (Demon), Rangoni-Boris (Boris Godunov), Gd. Prêtre (Samson et Dalila), Mephisto (Faust and Damnation de Faust), Sebastiano (Tiefland), Jago (Otello), Scarpia (Tosca) and Germont (Traviata).

He works with world’s renowned conductors as Marek Janowski, Christian Thielemann, Philippe Jordan, Christoph von Dohnányi, Zubin Mehta, Ricardo Mutti, Fabio Luisi, Seiji Ozawa, James Conlon, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Marcello Viotti, Marc Minkowski, Andrew Davis, Colin Davis, Daniele Gatti, Vladimir Fedosseyev, Neeme Järvi, Mariss Jansons, Andris Nelsons, Sebastian Weigle, Kazushi Ono, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, among others.

Robert Borkas Donner

Robert Bork

Born in Chicago, Robert Bork began his studies in the US and completed them with honours in Germany. He started his career as a member of the ensemble at the opera in Cologne.

Engagements followed at La Scala in Milan, Hamburgische Staatsoper, Opéra du Rhin in Strasbourg, Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse, La Fenice in Venice, DeNederlandse Opera, and at the Royal Flemish Opera in Antwerp.

Robert Bork worked with conductors such as Kent Nagano, Valery Gergiev, Simone Young, Marc Minkowski, Pinchas Steinberg, James Conlon, Ingo Metzmacher, Sebastian Weigle, Hartmut Haenchen and Ivan Fischer.

His wide ranging repertoire covers Jochanaan/Salome, Holländer/Der fliegende Holländer, Balstrode/Peter Grimes, Don Carlo/La Forza del Destino, Fritz Kothner/Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Klingsor/Parsifal, Masetto/Don Giovanni, Faninal/Der Rosenkavalier, Music Master/Ariadne auf Naxos, Kaspar/Der Freischütz, Animal Tamer, Rodrigo, and Athlete/Lulu, Simon/Violanta, and Mephisto/Faust, among others.

Recent highlights on the opera stage include Faninal/Der Rosenkavalier under the baton of Kent Nagno in Los Angeles; Albert/Werther and Turnage’s Greek at Opernfestspielen Munich; Balstrode/Peter Grimes at Palau de les Arts Valencia and at Deutsche Oper am Rhein; Klingsor/Parsifal in Turku; Widmann’s Babylon/Priest King at Concertgebouw Amsterdam under Markus Stenz; Gunter in Wagner’s Ring in Amsterdam and Antwerpen; Créon in Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex as well as Britten’s War Requiem with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano; Donner/Das Rheingold at Deutsche Oper am Rhein; and Bluebeard’s Castle at OCB Barcelona.

Robert Bork is also very sought after as a concert singer. His repertoire is as versatile as his opera repertoire and ranges from contemporary works such as Das Floß der Medusa by Hans Werner Henze to Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem, Mahler’s 8^th Symphony, Beethoven’s 9^th Symphony, and J.S. Bachs’ St. Matthew Passion and Mass in B minor.

Future engagements include Leonard Bernstein’s Candide at Dresden’s Semperoper.

WANG Chuanas Roméo

WANG Chuan

Based in Europe, WANG Chuan is a tenor and doctoral student at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music.

WANG Chuan is the first Chinese tenor ever to sing a leading role on the stage of Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Italy. A graduate from the Xinghai Conservatory of Music and the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi, he has studied under such renowned artists as Prof. YANG Yan, Prof. OU Haiou, soprano Fiorella Prandini, mezzo-soprano Luciana D’Intino, Prof. Umberto Finazzi, and pianists and vocal coaches including Vincenzo Scalera, James Vaughan and Michele D’Elia. He is also the first Chinese student to receive a scholarship at the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi.

WANG Chuan has won multiple international competitions including the First Prize at the 3^rd Antonio Bazzini International Opera Competition, the First Prize at the 7^th Salvatore Licitra Opera Competition, the Second Prize at the 5^th Portofino International Opera Competition, the Fifth Prize and the special “Plácido Domingo” Prize at the 58^th Concurs Tenor Viñas. He was among the finalists of the 20^th BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition.

His opera repertoire includes Don Pasquale, L’Elisir d’Amore, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, La Cenerentola, L’Italiana in Algeri, Roméo et Juliette, Rigoletto, Gianni Schicchi, Il Viaggio a Reims, Almida, Ermione, Khovanshchina, Ali Baba, Salome and I Promessi Sposi. He has sung as solo tenor in such orchestral works as Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, Orff’s Carmina Burana and Ferrari’s Requiem. In 2021, he sang at the Rossini Opera Festival—the most prominent stage for interpretations of Rossini’s works. In 2024, he sang as solo tenor in the world premiere of Xi’an Symphony Orchestra’s commissioned symphonic choral work Daode Jing.

Christian Franzas Loge

Christian Franz

Christian Franz studied with Prof. Hanno Blaschke in Munich.After having sung Max (Freischütz), Edgardo (Lucia di Lammermoor), Otello, Canio (I Pagliacci), Laca (Jen ůfa), Parsifal, Lohengrin, Herodes (Salome), Bacchus (Ariadne) with smaller German opera houses, his international career began when Giuseppe Sinopoli hired him for concerts in Dresden and at Carnegie Hall, and Daniel Barenboim brought him to Berlin State Opera in 1999, where he sang Parsifal, Tristan, Loge, Siegmund, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung.

Invitations followed to Bayreuther Festspiele, New National Theatre Tokyo, Vienna State Opera, Toronto, State Operas Hamburg and Munich and Deutsche Oper Berlin.

In 2005 he made his debut at the most renowned festivals in the USA, including Siegfried (Götterdämmerung) at the Hollywood Bowl Los Angeles and at the Tanglewood Festival, after which James Levine hired him for Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Metropolitan Opera New York in 2009.

The New York Times enthused: his “stalwart singing may have inspired others in the cast and the magnificent Met Orchestra under James Levine to exceptional work.”

Christian Franz has a special relationship with the Wagner Days Budapest (Director: Adam Fischer) where he is performing regularly since 2006.

In 2022 he was invited besides to a new production of Parsifal to concert performances of Winterreise (Schubert) in Biwako Hall, which was cancelled because of Force Majeure.

A particular concern for Christian Franz is to unite music and words, singing and acting, always finding new, lively forms of expression, true to Richard Wagner’s saying: “Children, create something new!” This is reflected in the following statements about his work:

“Every word a sculpture” (Nike Wagner)

“The poet among the Heldentenors” (Keith Warner)

“In every rehearsal, every performance, you add new and different nuances and constantly develop the production further” (Harry Kupfer)

Bettina Ranchas Fricka

Bettina Ranch

Berlin-born mezzo-soprano Bettina Ranch initially studied the violin before focussing on singing. She has recently appeared at such renowned opera houses as the Berlin State Opera, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Komische Oper Berlin, the Hamburg State Opera, the Aalto Theatre in Essen, the Grand Théâtre de la Ville de Luxembourg and the Dutch National Opera, appearing in works by such composers as Handel, Mozart and Wagner.

Her 2022/23 concert season included numerous debuts with works as Wagner's Wesendonck-Lieder (with the Essener Philharmoniker under Erik Nielsen) and Schumann's Das Paradies und die Peri with the Robert-Schumann-Philharmonie Chemnitz and MDR Radio Choir under Guillermo García Calvo. She made her house debut with J.S. Bach's Christmas Oratorio at the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie under Hans-Jörg Albrecht, returned to the Milan Auditorium to sing Mozart's Requiem with Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano under Claus Peter Flor, and performed Mendelssohn-Bartholdy's Symphony Lobgesang as well as Mahler's Symphony No.3 with the Essener Philharmoniker under Tomáš Netopil.

At the Essen Opera House she sung the title role in Carmen, Ramiro in La finta giardiniera, Adelaide in Arabella, and reprised her role as Marcellina in a new production of Le nozze di Figaro directed by Floris Visser.

The 2023/24 season will bring exciting projects for Bettina Ranch; Dorabella in Così fan tutte, two important role debuts, Amneris in Aida and Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde under the new music director Andrea Sanguineti and she will also appear in revival productions of Wozzeck and Puccini's Il Trittico.

Tanja Kuhnas Freia

Tanja Kuhn

Born in Heidelberg, Tanja Kuhn successfully completed her music studies in Stuttgart in 2015 and attended master classes with Lynne Dawson, Raina Kabaivanska, and Karan Armstrong.

She made her debut in 2012 in the role of the High Priestess in Aida at the Heidelberg Theatre under the baton of Cornelius Meister and at the Wilhelmstheater in Stuttgart in the roles of Electra in Mozart’s Idomeneo and Donna Clara in Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg.

The Stuttgarter Zeitung writes: “Tanja Kuhn sings the Infanta with high, sparkling notes and without ever losing energy.”

In 2015 she sang the role of Blumenmädchen in Parsifal at the Bayreuth Festival and made her debut as the title role in Mauricio Kagel’s Der Turm zu Babel at the Hanover Opera. She plays the role of Irene in Wagner’s Rienzi in Munich to excellent reviews and is Giulietta in Zandonai’s Romeo and Juliet at the Braunschweig Theatre.

Tanja Kuhn starts the 2017-2018 season with Senta (Flying Dutchman) at the Hof Theatre and the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari. In 2018 Tanja Kuhn debuts Hindemith’s Sancta Susanna at the Teatro Lirico in Cagliari and joins the ensemble of the Danish National Opera.

In 2020/21 she played Gräfin Zedlau (Wiener Blut) at the Hof Theater; in Dessau, she was the princess in Philip Glass’s opera (Orphée), which she reprised in the 2021/22 season.

In May 2022 Tanja Kuhn made her debut as Gerhilde in Peter Konwitschny’s production Walküre at the Dortmund Theatre.

Also in Dortmund she sang Pamina (Zauberflöte) and the title role in Kálmán’s Gräfin Mariza. In January 2023 she was in Leipzig with the MDR Orchestra conducted by Florian Ludwig, later in Cottbus as Desdemona.

NIU Shashaas Erda

NIU Shasha

NIU Shasha is a mezzo-soprano and National First-level Performer at the China National Opera House (CNOH). She is a winner of the Wenhua Award at the 9^th National Singing Competition held by the former Ministry of Culture.

Her NCPA appearances include Amneris (Aida), Ulrica (Un Ballo in Maschera), Laura Adorno (La Gioconda), Maddalena (Rigoletto, with maestro Leo Nucci), Azucena (Il Trovatore), Mary (Die Fliegende Holländer), Pseudo-Grandam (Visitors on the Snow Mountain), the Queen (Snow White), and Great-grandma LI (Minning Town).

She has also successfully depicted such roles as Carmen in the CNOH’s production of Carmen, Azucena in the CNOH’s production of Il Trovatore which toured Rome, Suzuki in the CNOH’s production of Madama Butterfly which was staged in Torre del Lago, Siegrune in CNOH’s production of Die Walküre, Erda in Siegfried, and Waltraute in Götterdämmerung. Her repertoire also includes CNOH’s productions Farewell My Concubine (as YU Shu), LAN Hui of Beichuan County (as Ms. BAI), Red Army Braves All Difficulties of the Long March (as FANG Yao) and Fate (as A Jing). She has sung major mezzo-soprano roles in Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, TAN Dun’s Tea: A Mirror of Soul, Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, and Strauss’s Salome.

She has performed major solo and lead vocalist roles in concerts with renowned conductors both home and abroad. Her concert repertoire includes Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Mahler’s Symphony Nos. 2 and 3, Verdi’s Requiem and Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater.

Tómas Tómassonas Alberich

Tómas Tómasson

The Icelandic bass-baritone, Tómas Tómasson, studied at the Reykjavik College of Music and at the Royal College of Music in London, where he graduated with distinction.

His vast repertoire ranges from Monteverdi, Verdi and Puccini, Wagner and Richard Strauss, Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky and Prokofiev to Zemlinsky and Glass.

Over the course of his career, Tómasson performed at renowned houses such as the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Teatro alla Scala, Vienna State Opera, Bavarian State Opera Munich, Dresden Semperoper, Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin, Komische Oper Berlin, State Opera Hamburg, Opera Cologne, Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Teatro Regio Turin, Teatro San Carlo Naples, Teatro Real of Madrid, Théâtre de la Monnaie Brussels, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Nederlandse Opera Amsterdam, Royal Danish Opera Copenhagen, Lyric Opera Chicago, Los Angeles Opera, San Francisco Opera and Washington National Opera.

He collaborated with conductors such as Riccardo Muti, Daniel Barenboim, Antonio Pappano, Andris Nelsons, Simone Young, René Jacobs, Stefan Soltész, Hartmut Haenchen, Mark Elder, Carlo Rizzi, James Conlon, Juraj Valčuha, Ingo Metzmacher, Jakub Hrůša, Lorin Maazel and Semyon Bychkov.

On the concert stage he sang Verdi's Requiem, Bach's St Matthew Passion, Mozart's Requiem, Haydn's The Creation, Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, as well as Mahler's Symphony No. 8.

Projects of the season 2023/24 include Klingsor in Parsifal in Hannover, Pizarro in Beethoven's Fidelio at Berlin State Opera, Jochanaan in Salome at the Irish National Opera, Jaroslav Prus in Janáček's The Makropulos Affair in Lyon, Wegener in Zimmermann's Die Soldaten in concert with the Gürzenich-Orchester, Löwel Perl in Krzysztof Penderecki's The Black Mask in concert with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Alberich in Wagner's Ring with the Dallas Symphony and Fabio Luisi.

Arnold Bezuyenas Mime

Arnold Bezuyen

Arnold Bezuyen started his career in Augsburg and Bremen singing Cassio, Rodolfo, Turiddu, Pinkerton, Ismaele, Alfredo, Alfred and Loge. He made his debut at the Festival Bayreuth under Mo. Levine as Loge, then he recorded Loge with Mo. Kuhn on CD. Since then sang often in Bayreuth, where he was heard in the “Ring” production of Tankred Dorst and Christian Thielemann again as Loge. He was engaged at Staatsoper Vienna singing there Tamino, Alfred in Fledermaus, Dr. Cajus, Erik, Alwa and Matteo.

Arnold Bezuyen has worked with conductors like Sir Andrew Davis, Christoph Eschenbach, Adam Fischer, James Levine, Seiji Ozawa, Antonio Pappano, Jaap van Zweden and Christian Thielemann.

Recent and future engagements through the 2024/25 season include Wozzeck in Bucharest, Lulu in Wuppertal, Makropulos’ Case and Fledermaus in Innsbruck, Hexe in Chemnitz, Fidelio in Amsterdam, Siegfried in Götterdämmerung with Mo. Marek Janowski in Tokyo, Gurrelieder in Denmark, Herodes in Catania, Erik in Hagen, Herodes in Leeds, Nixon in China in Copenhagen, Mime in Siegfried in Chemnitz and Seoul, Mime in Rheingold in Prague, Loge in Seoul, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in Nizza, Loge, Mime and Hauptmann in Wozzeck in Kassel, Bacchus in Magdeburg, Mime in Rheingold and Siegfried in Bayreuth, Mime in Rheingold in Beijing, Schuiski in Boris Godunov and Wozzeck in Tokyo, Makropulos Case in Amsterdam and Salome in Florence.

Andrea Silvestrellias Fasolt

Andrea Silvestrelli

Andrea Silvestrelli is one of the most sought-after bassi profondi on the international opera scene.

This season, Silvestrelli returns to Houston Grand Opera as Klingsor in Parsifal, and he joins Opera Australia as Fafner, Hunding, and Hagen in three full cycles of Der Ring des Nibelungen in Brisbane under the direction of Chen Shi-Zheng. Recent performances include the title role in Attila and Thomas Becket in Assassinio nella cattedrale in Chicago, Hagen in Götterdämmerung and Fafner in Siegfried in a return to the National Taichung Theater in Taiwan, China, and Sparafucile in Rigoletto with Boston Lyric Opera, with Maryland Lyric Opera as Filippo II in Don Carlos, Banco in Macbeth, in Jesi with Delitto all'isola delle capre and in Livorno with il piccolo Marat di Mascagni.

Andrea Silvestrelli has enjoyed long and successful relationships with many of the most prestigious opera companies in the world. In North America, he was heard with major opera houses such as the San Francisco Opera, the Chicago Lyric Opera, the Met Opera, the Seattle Opera, the Washington National Opera and Santa Fe Opera. In Europe, he has sung on the stages of multiple countries including Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, the UK, France and Italy. His extended opera repertoire includes the Ring Cycle, Rigoletto, Don Carlos, Norma, Il tabarro, Gianni Schicchi, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Il trovatore, La Bohème, Don Giovanni, Le nozze di Figaro, Parsifal, Otello, Samson et Dalila, Turandot and so on.

Mr. Silvestrelli recorded Commendatore in Don Giovanni for DG in 1995, conducted by John Eliot Gardiner, which received a Grammy Award.

GUAN Zhijingas Fafner

GUAN Zhijing

One of China’s most active bass singers, GUAN Zhijing is a National First-class Performer, opera artist and Wenhua Award winner.

An NCPA resident singer, GUAN Zhijing is a “cultural figure” and “four-batch” talent named by the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, a young talent promoting China’s ideology and culture, a young creative talent funded by the China National Arts Fund 2020, a member of the 15^th CPPCC Committee of Dongcheng District, the Beijing’s Non-CPC Intellectuals Society, the Overseas Chinese Association of Dongcheng District, and the Dongcheng District Youth Federation. He is also one of Beijing’s role models for young people.

He won the Wenhua Award of the 8^th National Vocal Music Competition and the Opera Performance Award of the 1^st China Opera Festival by the Ministry of Culture (now renamed as the Ministry of Culture and Tourism). In 2005, he was admitted into the masterclass of Carlo Bergonzi with a scholarship. In 2013, he stood out from nearly 600 singers and won a full governmental scholarship to enter the Centro Universale del Bel Canto in Modena, Italy, where he studied under the world-renowned soprano Mirella Freni.

He has interpreted such musical works as Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Dvořák’s Mass in D Major, Mozart’s Requiem and Mass in C minor, Rossini’s Stabat Mater and the symphonic poem Chinese Harmonious Music. His opera repertoire includes Sister Jiang, The Savage Land, Romance of Rawap, Le Nozze di Figaro, Salome, Madama Butterfly, Die Zauberflöte, Tannhäuser, Tea: A Mirror of Soul, Turandot, La Bohème, A Village Teacher, Xishi, The Chinese Orphan, La Traviata, Rigoletto, L’Elisir d’Amore, Lohengrin, Otello, Un Ballo in Maschera, Il Trovatore, Rickshaw Boy, Norma, William Tell, The Red Guards on Honghu Lake, Jinsha River, Lan Huahua, Macbeth, Visitors on the Snow Mountain, Yongle, The Long March, Effendi, Carmen, La Gioconda, Yue Fei, Les Pêcheurs de Perles, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Ordinary World, Lu Xun, Tosca, The Song of Youth, Minning Town, Aida and The Wild Rhododendron.

QIN Kanruas Woglinde

QIN Kanru

Dr. QIN Kanru is a coloratura soprano, National Second-Level Performer, a soloist at the China National Opera House (CNOH), and a member of the Beijing Musicians’ Association. A graduate from the Central Conservatory of Music, she is a student of renowned artists Prof. ZHANG Jianyi, Prof. LIU Yue and Prof. WANG Li.

She attended the prominent coloratura soprano Sumi Jo’s master class in October 2013 and May 2015, gaining the maestro’s recognition. During July to August 2014, she attended the iSING! Suzhou master class, gaining unanimous praise from the jury. She also attended the master classes of renowned maestros Sherrill Milnes, Charles Spencer and Davide Dellisanti.

She has appeared in opera productions such as Taihang, My Mother’s Name, Die Zauberflöte, Manas, A Story About Growing Up, Le Nozze di Figaro, The Road, La Cenerentola, Pagliacci, Fate, ZHENG Lyucheng, The Death of Oedipus and The Medium. Her next highlight is the NCPA production of Das Rheingold.

Her major awards include: the Golden Bell Award of the singing (bel-canto) group in the 11^th Chinese Golden Bell Award for Music competition (2017), the Third Prize in the 40^th Maria Callas International Grand Prix (2017), the Third Prize in the Ningbo International Vocal Competition (2018), and the winner of the Central Conservatory of Music’s “The Best of the Best” programme.

XU Xiaoyingas Wellgunde

XU Xiaoying

XU Xiaoying is a National First-class Performer. Graduated from the Voice and Opera Department of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, she was the student of the renowned soprano Prof. CHEN Qilian. XU Xiaoying is now the prima donna at the Shanghai Opera House.

In September 2003, she was invited to participate in the 14^th Concours International de Chant de Verviers in Belgium and won the 6^th place; in October 2005, she represented China in the 14^th Montreal and Czechoslovakia International Vocal Competition and won the 1^st prize; in 2006, she was honoured as one of the Shanghai Outstanding Cultural and Artistic Talent. She has sung major roles in Chinese and Western opera works such as Xishi, Thunderstorm, Song of Farewell, The Dawns Here are Quiet, Morning Bell, TIAN Han, Les Pêcheurs de Perles, La Traviata, Aida, Carmen, Otello, Tosca, Cavalleria Rusticana, Suor Angelica, Die Lustige Witwe, Le Villi, Falstaff, Don Giovanni, Die Fledermaus, Macbeth and Turandot. She sang the role of Minnie Vautrin in 170 Days in Nanking-the Diaries of John Rabe, an award winning Chinese original opera created to commemorate the victims of the Nanjing Massacre.

XU Xiaoying has performed with renowned conductors such as Michel Plasson, John Nelson, ZHANG Guoyong, XU Zhong, ZHENG Xiaoying, YU Long, CHEN Xieyang, LÜ Jia and YE Dalin. Her tours have taken her to multiple countries including France, Italy, Germany, Finland, Sweden and North Korea.

ZHANG Yajieas Flosshilde

ZHANG Yajie

ZHANG Yajie received her Doctorate in Opera at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover and her Doctorate in Chamber Art Music and Art Song from the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe, Germany. She received her undergraduate degree from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music.

From 2022-2024, ZHANG Yajie was invited to join the Leipzig Opera as the first Chinese soloist-in-residence, where she successfully performed leading roles such as Angelina in Rossini's La Cenerentola, Hänsel in Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel, and Suzuki in Puccini's Madama Butterfly.

In the last Season 2022/23, the young mezzo-soprano was invited to collaborate with conductor Gustavo Dudamel, soprano Renée Fleming and baritone Thomas Hampson in her debut at the Opéra national de Paris. In the same year, she was featured in the live recording of the world premiere of Donizetti's extraordinary and historically significant opera Dalinda in the Konzerthaus Berlin, which was recently published by Naxos Records. Furthermore, she recorded an album of art songs by American composer W.G. Still with pianist Hartmut Höll for SWR German Radio, which will be published later this year.

ZHANG Yajie is a former Young Artist of the Bavarian State Opera in Germany, where she performed with singers such as Plácido Domingo, Jonas Kaufmann, Ludovic Tézier and others in operas such as Parsifal, La Traviata, La Cenerentola and Rusalka, and the contemporary opera Singularity (world premiere). Since 2018, she has been regularly invited to perform at the NCPA in Beijing, successfully portraying roles such as La Muse and Niklaus in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro, Flora in La Traviata, and Stephano in Gounod's Romeo et Juliette.

ZHANG Yajie has an astonishingly unique talent for art song, performing with her lied partner, the renowned pianist Hartmut Höll, she has appeared at the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, the Oxford Lieder Festival in the UK, the Heidelberg Spring International Music Festival, the Naantali Music Festival and the Helsinki Seriös Festival in Finland. Further concerts and recitals have brought her to the Beijing Music Festival, the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and the Philharmonic Hall in St. Petersburg, among many others.

Presenter

NCPA Resident Singers
As an indispensable backbone of the NCPA’s opera production, as well as China’s opera stage, the NCPA Resident Singers, founded in October 2011, stand composed of outstanding opera artists from at home and abroad. As one of the most representative and outstanding teams for interpreting the art of opera, they play a crucial role in about 70 Chinese opera commissions and world classic operas produced by the NCPA. They are a Chinese opera ensemble that has reached the most extensive and deepest cooperation with world-class conductors, directors, singers and stage artists, world-renowned theaters and art institutions, etc. They are also one of the few artist teams managed under professional international standards. Keeping their mission firmly in mind and remaining true to their original aspiration, the singers remain committed to maintaining the high quality of Chinese opera commissions and carrying forward the spirit of Chinese culture by adding the wings of vocal art to the Chinese story. They have toured Turin, Milan, Genoa, Florence, Parma, St. Petersburg, Moscow, and China Hong Kong, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Wuhan, Nanchang, Urumqi and many other places across the globe.

As leading artists, the NCPA Resident Singers have participated in national cultural performances and international cultural exchanges including A Millennium Promise, a theatrical gala held at the “Belt and Road” Forum for International Cooperation, and A Great Journey, a theatrical performance for celebrating the 100^th anniversary of the founding of the CPC. They also sing for the people by giving “100 public-spirited performances” and carrying out art education activities, as a significant part of the “Drip Irrigation Project” designed to popularise elegant art and widen the Chinese audience for opera.

Upholding the tenet of “being for the people, for art, and for the world” and adhering to the principles of leadership, inheritance, innovation, compatibility and openness, the NCPA Resident Singers stand devoted to spreading the art of opera in China and initiating a dialogue with the world through elegant art.

China NCPA Orchestra
China NCPA Orchestra is the resident orchestra of the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), Beijing. Since its founding in 2010, the orchestra has fast established itself as one of the most adventurous and dynamic orchestras in the country and earned an international reputation through extensive performances abroad.

Artists associated with the orchestra include Zubin Mehta, Valery Gergiev, Myung-Whun Chung, Fabio Luisi, Christoph Eschenbach, Shao-Chia Lü, ZHANG Xian, Rudolf Buchbinder, Lang Lang, Stephen Kovacevich, Yuja Wang, WANG Jian, Gautier Capucon, Kyung Wha Chung, Vadim Repin, Placido Domingo, Renee Fleming, and Leo Nucci among many others. Lorin Maazel worked closely with the orchestra before his passing and praised the musicians for their “amazing professionalism and great passion in music”.

The orchestra has gained critical acclaim for its performances in NCPA’s opera productions of not only classical repertoire such as Tristan and Isolde, Der Rosenkavalier, Tosca and Aida, but also newly commissioned works like The Rickshaw Boy, The Long March, and The Jinsha River. In its own orchestral concert season, it has consistently presented creative and diverse programmes. The orchestra also gave the Chinese premieres of works by Toru Takemitsu, et al, commissioned and world premiered many works by Michael Gordon, Augusta Read Thomas, CHEN Qigang, and ZHAO Jiping et al. Their performance of The Ring without Words with its creator, Lorin Maazel, was released on SONY Classics worldwide. In 2019, the orchestra’s recording of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 was awarded "Best Orchestral Album" at the 2018 Chinese Audiophile Vinyl Award. In 2021, the NCPAO released Beethoven’s Egmont, becoming the first Chinese orchestra to record this masterpiece. In celebration of the tenth anniversary of its Music Director LÜ Jia’s ongoing tenure, the orchestra released two albums in 2022, including Bruckner's Symphony No. 9 and a selection of live recordings conducted by LÜ Jia. In July 2023, the NCPAO released the recording of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 3.

Alongside its concert series, the orchestra has received widespread praise for its international appearances at the Kissingen Summer Music Festival and the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival and concerts in many cities in Germany, as well as in Sydney, Singapore, Seoul, Daegu, Abu Dhabi, Taipei and Macau. In 2014, the orchestra undertook its first North American tour and returned in 2017, where it performed at Carnegie Hall, Chicago Symphony Center, Davies Symphony Hall and other major venues in the US and Canada, under the baton of LÜ Jia. Musical America praised its “joyful confidence and youthful strength”. Concerto Net described it as “a polished, first rate ensemble”. April 2021 saw the orchestra complete their first six-city domestic tour, which Music Weekly praised as "a series of sophisticated programs in concerts that blew the roof off,” followed by a second tour in March 2023.
Note

Box officeNorth Gate of NCPA, No. 2 West Chang'an Avenue, Xicheng District, Beijing, China

Tickets collection hours9:30-19:30 (CST) on performance day
9:30-18:00 (CST) for days without performance

Booking line+86 10 6655 0000

Booking hours9:30-18:00 (CST) Monday to Friday

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Box Office HoursPerformance Days 9:30 AM -19:30 PMGap Days 9:30 AM -18:00 PM Tickets Info8610-66550000

Productions Repertoire Films Videos Podcast

Resident Companies China NCPA Orchestra China NCPA Chorus NCPA Resident Singers NCPA Drama Ensemble

Explore NCPA Buildings Exhibitions

Visit Info Opening Hours Guided Tours Services Getting Here

Dine&Shop Western Cuisine NCPA Café Arts Gifts

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LÜ Jia

Stefano Poda

Paolo Giani Cei

Egils Silins

Robert Bork

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Christian Franz

Bettina Ranch

Tanja Kuhn

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Tómas Tómasson

Arnold Bezuyen

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XU Xiaoying

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CALENDAR
Full Calendar
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GENRE
Opera Concert Dance & Ballet Theatre
Chinese Traditional Opera

Festivals & Series* NCPA Dance Festival 2024 * Charm of China—Maestros of Chinese Traditional Music * NCPA Pure Classical 2024 * NCPA Piano Virtuosos 2024

Box Office Hours
Performance Days 9:30 AM -19:30 PM
Gap Days 9:30 AM -18:00 PM
Tickets Info
8610-66550000

Productions
Repertoire Films Videos Podcast

Resident Companies
China NCPA Orchestra China NCPA Chorus
NCPA Resident Singers NCPA Drama Ensemble

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