The Shanghai Opera House is celebrating its 70th birthday with a carnival New Year concert on January 10 at Jaguar Shanghai Symphony Hall.

Under the baton of veteran conductor Zhang Guoyong, the concert will be presented by Shanghai Opera House Orchestra, featuring renowned domestic opera singers, including Shi Yijie, Wei Song, Yu Haolei, Xu Xiaoying, and Song Qian, to name a few.

The repertoire includes both excerpts from Western classics, such as Puccini's "Che gelida manina" and Verdi's "La donna è mobile," as well as Chinese national operas and art songs. From lyrical arias to grand symphonies and choruses, the performance will create an international musical dialogue between the classical and the contemporary.

Tenor Shi Yijie is also the new president of the Shanghai Opera House. With solid performance and teaching experience both in China and abroad, he hopes to lead the opera house into a new chapter of development.

"Since childhood, my dream of studying vocal music was to join an opera house chorus and become a vocal teacher," said Shi. "Today, these dreams have been realized in ways beyond my expectations."

Born in Shanghai, Shi graduated from the Toho Gakuen College of Music in Japan. He participated in the Rossini Opera Festival in Italy for five consecutive years and has collaborated with numerous Chinese and international artists and art groups throughout his career.

He has also taught at the Conservatory of Music of Hunan Normal University, the China Conservatory of Music, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the Toho Gakuen College.

"In the future, we will introduce some high-quality international productions that I have previously performed in, to enrich the opera house's program," said Shi. "We will further refine our productions, striving to leave the audience amazed."

The world classics the opera house plans to offer in the new season include "Turandot", "Rigoletto", "L'elisir d'amore", and "Madama Butterfly". There are also symphony concerts and choral concerts.

Performance info

Date: January 10, 7:30pm

Tickets: 80-880 yuan

Venue: Jaguar Shanghai Symphony Hall 上海交响音乐厅

Address: 1380 Fuxing Rd M 复兴中路1380号