The "Italian Renaissance Art" Exhibition, which inaugurated the Year of Italy in China in January, closed on Sunday at the Millennium Art Museum in Beijing.

The exhibition has attracted a great number of people, who seized this rare opportunity to be close to dozens of Renaissance masterpieces by Masaccio, Leonardo da Vinci and others.

For those who missed it, feeling regret is yet unnecessary. The exhibition is just one of the many items in the one-year-long exchanging programme between China and Italy. A series of cultural events, including dance, concert, exhibition and movie, will continue to amuse people in more major cities, such as Shanghai, Hong Kong, Guangzhou of Guangdong Province, Dalian and Shenyang of Liaoning Province.

Following Aterballetto's impressive contemporary dance in March, the Katakl Athletic Dance Theatre is ready to stun the audience with unique sports dances next month. The Ensemble Ballet of Micha van Hoecke will stage their latest work paying homage to the great opera diva Maria Callas. At the end of the year, ballet dancers of Teatro alla Scala will tour China, bringing repertoires A Midsummer Night's Dream and Don Quixote.

People are also expecting some of the most prestigious orchestras and opera houses from Italy. This year's Beijing Music Festival in October will feature the performance by Teatro Petruzzelli Di Bari, considered the "temple of opera," and Teatro La Fenice.

Maurizio Pollini, renowned pianist and conductor, will give a recital to interpret both classic and modern avant-garde music. Riccardo Muti is to conduct the China Philharmonic Orchestra.

Proud of the glorious opera tradition, Italian artists will also entertain the Chinese with folk songs by Lina Sastri, and jazz by Roberto Gatto Special Quintet and Rosaria Guiliani Quartet. Famous Italian singers will collaborate with Chinese counterparts to give a pop concert.

The theatre section has teamed up the marionette company, Carlo Colla and Sons, with a comic version of Aida, the Giocovita Theatre with a shadow spectacle of Firebird, as well as Teatro Del Carretto with Snow White. Apart from these adoptions of classic themes, several representative modern plays are also available.

The upcoming exhibitions will display abundant artistic productions of Sicily and serigraphic copies of machinery models by Renaissance inventors. Proud of a rich culture in history, Italians are keen to showcase fruits of the contemporary art, by means of painting, design, architecture and photography.

Three Italian film festivals will take place in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province, to screen prize-winning works by some greatest directors and recent experiments by promising young talents.

(China Daily April 27, 2006)