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)