Festival celebrates Sino-French cultural exchange

Soprano Zhang Liping, harpist Sun Shimeng and pianist Zhang Jialin performed together in a concert to celebrate French composers.

As part of the ongoing Croisements Festival, an annual Sino-French cultural exchange event, the concert was held at the Forbidden City Concert Hall on Wednesday. It featured French songs including Charles Gounod's Serenade, Reynaldo Hahn's A Chloris, and Gabriel Faure's Clair de Lune.

The concert also saw the artists performing arias from classic French operas such as L'air des bijoux (The Jewel Song) from the opera Faust by Charles Gounod, Depuis le Jour (Ever Since the Day) from the opera Louise by Gustave Charpentier, and Je Vets Vivre Dans Ce Reve (I Want to Live in the Dream) from the opera Romeo and Juliet by Gounod.

Pianist Zhang Jialin recalled performing with soprano Zhang Li--ping and harpist Sun in 2017 at the same venue featuring programs of French pieces, which received great response from the audience. With the upcoming concert, he selected repertories which are well known among Chinese audiences.

"For those who may not be familiar with French art songs and French operas, these music pieces are beautifully written and will be a great start for the audience to enjoy French music," says Zhang Jialin.

He also notes that though the arias from operas are usually performed by symphony orchestras, the concert will present a different version of the arias with new arrangements.

"French music is associated with words such as romance and elegance. These songs will provide the audience with different music styles since the French composers opened up to various music influences," adds Zhang Liping, who is the first Chinese-born singer to play a lead role as Cio-Cio-San with the New York Metropolitan Opera in Giacomo Puccini's Madame Butterfly.

Born in Wuhan, Hubei province, to a classical musician father and a dancer mother, Zhang Liping received vocal training at the Wuhan Conservatory of Music and graduated from the vocal opera department of the Central Conservatory of Music where she now teaches, in 1989. As a student, she performed with Spanish tenor Placido Domingo, and this big break inspired her to pursue opera in the West by studying with Canadian soprano Phyllis Mailing at the Vancouver Academy of Music. In 1997, she moved to London and started her career.

She also performed in operatic productions in Europe and the United States, such as La Traviata, Turandot, Faust and Carmen, before she returned to China in 2006.

The soprano says that she has a special love for French art songs ever since she was a student. "Singing an art song is like reading a poem," she says.

According to Xu Jian, general manager of the Forbidden City Concert Hall, four concerts will be held at the venue to celebrate the cultural exchange event, The Croisements Festival, which, in its 15th year, runs from April 21 to July 31 with more than 70 programs such as exhibitions, theatrical productions and movies. Besides Beijing, the event will also go to Shanghai, and Chengdu in Sichuan province.

On June 1, International Children's Day, the Beijing Symphony Orchestra will perform under the baton of conductor Yu Ji, featuring programs designed for younger audiences, including Joseph-Maurice Ravel's Mother Goose, an imaginative suite of fairy-tale pieces, and Saint-Saens' Carnival of Animals, one of the best known pieces of classical music for children.

On June 6, cellist Mo Mo and pianist Jin Wenbin will perform together in a concert featuring programs by Debussy, Francis Poulenc and Olivier Messiaen.

On June 24, DNA trio, a Chinese chamber music group celebrating its 16th year and consisting of pianist Zhang Jialin, cellist Song Zhao and violinist Zhang Jingye, will present a concert paying tribute to Camille Saint-Saens as this year marks the centenary of the death of the French composer. His most well-known pieces such as symphonic poem Danse Macabre, opera Samson and Delilah and Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso will be adapted into chamber music works.