Roland Petit, the world's most revered ballet maestro, will join hands with the National Ballet of China (NBC) to stage Carmen in Beijing this November, sources with the NBC said in Beijing Monday.

NBC director Zhao Ruheng Monday told Xinhua that the premiere of the ballet opera Carmen in China was scheduled for Nov. 10 at Peking University. Roland Petit himself will also come to Beijing.

The ballet opera Carmen was created on the basis of Geoges Bizet in 1949 by Petit, who was then the star actor of the Paris Opera Ballet, one of the five top ballet troupes in the world. Petit together with his wife, premiered Carmen in 1949. Since then, this ballet opera has been staged more than 5,000 times worldwide.

Zhao said Petit was always very "picky" in choosing partners, and NBC has been waiting for many years to draw the attention of this ballet maestro. "Last year, when NBC was nominated as the one of the top three foreign dancing troupes by the Britain-based National Dance Awards Critics' Circle, Petit turned his eyes on us," Zhao said.

According to her, the Chinese ballet artists will also stage another two masterpieces of Petit's, which were both in the repertoire of the Paris Opera Ballet. Zhao pointed out that the NBC's developing strategy is to promote Chinese ballet on the world stage while in the meantime introducing the world's top ballet into China.

The premiere of Carmen in China is also an innovative product of NBC, following several new products such as Sylvia and Butterfly Lovers. Carmen will also go to other Chinese cities like Macao, Shenzhen and Hangzhou.

(Xinhua News Agency October 25, 2005)