ChinaDaily News (970517-8)

[Big Jim]

China Daily

97 / 05 / 17 /

***************************************************************************
1. Entertainment (Page 5, Date: 05/17/97)
***************************************************************************

Entertainment (Page 5, Date: 05/17/97)

CONCERTS

Symphonic music -- The China National Symphony Orchestra will stage a
concert.

With Tang Muhai conducting and a South Korean pianist doing the piano
solo, the musicians will play works by Mahler and Rachmaninov.

Time: 7:30 pm, May 17. Location: Beijing Concert Hall, 1 Beixinhuajie.
Tel: 6605-5812.

Piano works -- Zhou Guangren, professor from the Central Conservatory
of Music, will continue to hold a series of concerts to introduce
worldwide classical piano works. This time, she will illustrate works
by national, folk music sects.

She and her students will play Bartok's "Romanian Dance," De Falla's
"Ritual Fire Dance," Dvorak's "Humoresque," Gershwin's "Prelude" and
Mussorsky's "Gopak Dance.

Time: 7:30 pm, May 17. Location: the Art Salon of Holiday Inn Crowne
Plaza, 48 Wangfujing Dajie, Dongcheng District. Tel: 6512-5063 or
6513-3388 ext 1209.

Serenades -- A concert featuring serenade pieces will be held at the
Beijing Theatre.

Musicians from the Central Conservatory of Music and the China Youth
Symphony Orchestra will play serenade works by Beethoven, Donizetti,
Mozart, Schubert and Strauss.

Time: 7:30 pm, May 17. Location: Beijing Theatre, 10 Area 3 Anhuili,
Chaoyang District. Tel: 6491-0516, 6491-1228.

Schubert -- The 36th Music Appreciation Course will introduce
Schubert's works to music lovers.

With Yao Qihui doing the explanation, the musicians will play
Schubert's "Impromptus," "Moments of Music" and "Trout Quintet."

Time: 2 pm, May 18. Location: Beijing Concert Hall, 1 Beixinhuajie.
Tel: 6605-5812.

Worldwide classics -- Yang Ming, professor from the Central
Conservatory of Music, will hold a concert illustrating piano works by
national folk music sects.

The musicians will play works by Bartok, Dvorak, Grieg, Rachmaninov
and Tchaikovsky.

Time: 7:30 pm, May 18. Location: Beijing Concert Hall, 1 Beixinhuajie.
Tel: 6605-5812.

New works -- Beijing Concert Hall will introduce new works of modern
Chinese composers.

The repertoire includes "Five poems from Tang Dynasty" by Luo
Zhongrong, "Prelude and Fuga" by He Shaoying and "Odes" by Liu
Changyuan.

Time: 7:30 pm, May 19. Location: Beijing Concert Hall, 1 Beixinhuajie.
Tel: 6605-5812.

OPERA

Original opera -- The Liyuan Theatre at Qianmen Hotel presents Peking
Opera in the original style. The theatre has revived the ambience of
old Beijing by setting up Ming-style tables so guests can sample
snacks during performances.

Performers are from the Beijing Peking Opera Theatre.

Time: 7:30 pm, nightly. Location: Qianmen Hotel, 175 Yong'anlu, Xuanwu
District. Tel: 6301-6688 ext 8986.

Peking Opera -- The Beijing Peking Opera Troupe will premiere its new
production "The Tongrentang Pharmacy" from May 23.

The Tongrentang Pharmacy, located in the downtown Qianmen commercial
area, was established a century ago. The new play depicts the great
changes members in and out of the drugstore underwent in the face of
the Western invasion at the turn of the century.

Time: 7:15 pm, May 23-26. Location: Capital Theatre, 22 Wangfujing
Dajie, Dongcheng District. Tel: 6525-0996.

Quju Opera -- Quju, a local opera in Beijing, features story-telling
to musical accompaniment.

Adapted from contemporary novelist Deng Youmei's novel of the same
title, "Snuff Bottle," a full-length Qing costume play, portrays a
snuff bottle painter in Beijing during the late Qing Dynasty
(1644-1911). It reveals the local customs, people and their lives at
the time.

Time: 7:15 pm, May 27-28. Location: Beijing Workers' Club. Tel:
6532-9574.

DRAMA

Beautiful comedy -- When two women who haven't seen each other for 20
years run into each other again, they have a lot to tell each other --
and the audience -- in the comedy "Women are Beautiful."

One of the women has worked hard to become economically powerful,
while the other has turned herself into a typical modern intellectual.
They find their differences do not get in the way of their mutual
understanding.

The playwright, producer and director of the comedy are all young with
overseas professional study experience.

Time: 7:15 pm, May 17. Location: China Children's Art Theatre, 64
Dong'anmen Dajie, Dongcheng District. Tel: 6524-1831, 6513-4121.

Tel: 6524-1831, 6513-4121.

Experimental drama -- The Central Experimental Modern Drama Theatre's
short play "Our Fathers" is under way at the small theatre of the
Beijing People's Art Theatre through May 18.

The play describes the complicated relations between a group of
college students and their fathers. Critics hold that the realistic
play is a challenge to various experimental schools.

The play is written by Shen Jie and directed by Li Mengnan. The cast
includes Lei Kesheng, Huang Xiaoli, Tantai Renhui, and Chang Lantian.

Time: 7 pm, May 17-18. Location: the small theatre of Capital Theatre,
22 Wangfujing Dajie, Dongcheng District. Tel: 6525-0123.

ACROBATICS

Joyful jugglers -- The China Acrobatic Troupe is juggling, cycling and
tumbling every night at the Chaoyang Theatre.

The 46-year-old troupe, one of the best of its kind in the country,
has toured over 60 countries and won awards in international
competitions.

The company's repertoire includes tightrope walking, martial arts and
traditional Chinese magic tricks.

Acrobats juggle, cycle, and tumble on the stage, winning praise from
audiences both at home and abroad.

Time: 7:15 pm, daily. Location: Chaoyang Theatre, 36 Dongsanhuan
Beilu, Chaoyang District. Tel: 6507-2421.

Time: 7:15 pm, nightly. Location: Beijing Universe Theatre (inside
Dongcheng Children's Palace), 10 Dongzhimen Nandajie, Dongcheng
District. Tel: 6502-3984.

BALLET

War ballet -- The revolutionary ballet "The Red Detachment of Women"
(Hongse Niangzi Jun) will be back on stage on May 23-25.

Acclaimed as the first Chinese contemporary ballet, the dance drama
has a unique flavour, different from Western classical ballets.

The six-act ballet, set against the background of the civil war in the
1930s, is about a group of enslaved peasant women who break their
bonds to join the Red Army and topple a cruel local landlord.

Based on a well-known film of the same name, the ballet was
choreographed by the Central Ballet of China in 1964.

Considered a top artistic achievement, it has survived decades. The
Central Ballet of China revived the show in 1992 and now includes it
in its permanent repertoire. Since then, the ballet has toured
Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Hong Kong and some cities in
the United States, meeting with high praise and performing to sold-out
audiences.

Time: 7:15 pm, May 23-25. Location: Century Theatre, 40 Liangmaqiao
Lu, Chaoyang District. Tel: 6526-5087, 6405-5512, 6402-3624,
6402-3625.

Don Quixote -- The China National Opera and Ballet (CNOB) will
re-present the four-act "Don Quixote" on May 27-29 at the Century
Theatre.

The ballet is the second round done by the CNOB since the troupe chose
the China Performing Arts Agency as its agent in late March, an
unprecedented move in China.

"Don Quixote" centres around the love between an innkeeper's daughter
and a barber, while the stories of knight Don Quixote and his faithful
Sancho Panza are interwoven with the young lovers' adventures.

The choreography is designed after the version by Rudolf Nureyev.

Time: 7:15 pm, May 27-29. Location: Century Theatre, 20 Liangmaqiao
Lu, Chaoyang District. Tel: 6526-5087, 6405-5512, 6402-3624,
6402-3625.

EXHIBITIONS

Modern art show -- Zeng Hao, a graduate from the Oil Department of the
Central Academy of Fine Arts, is holding his one-man oil painting
exhibition at the gallery of his alma mater.

A native of Yunnan Province, Zeng is deeply influenced by the natural
environment of his tropical hometown. Since graduating in 1989, Zeng
has been searching for a language of his own to express his feeling on
life and human nature. Now he believes that he has found it. In a
modern style and on large two-dimensional planes, he draws everything
he sees in daily life.

All the exhibits are his creations from recent years.

Time: 9 am-4 pm, through June 5. Location: 5 Xiaowei Hutong,
Wangfujing Dajie, Dongcheng District. Tel: 6528-4838.

Water and ink -- Over 20 of Li Jin's water-and-ink works, which depict
the life and mood of typical Chinese intellectuals, are on show at the
Hanmo Gallery.

Adding to the charm of traditional Chinese water-and-ink, Li catches
sparkling moments in the contemporary life of the ordinary educated
Chinese -- the soul's experience on a particular summer day, the hint
of a desire somehow suppressed, or a romantic and happy moment.
Through his easy style, the artist tells the story of a life which is
ordinary, balanced, natural and happy.

Time: May 23-June 15. Location: Hanmo Gallery, Huaweiqiao, Dongsanhuan
Nanlu, Chaoyang District. Tel: 1301134909.

Paintings from Japan -- To mark the 25th anniversary of the
normalization of Sino-Japanese relationship, a painting exhibition is
being held at the China National Art Museum through May 25.

The exhibits include Chinese paintings, prints and oils, all collected
by the Nakagawa Gallery in Japan. Some of them were done by old
masters such as Wu Zuoren, Gu Yuan, Wang Zou and Wu Guanzhong. Now
they are back in China.

The Nakagawa Gallery is one of the many galleries in Japan which
collect Chinese paintings.

Time: 9 am-4 pm, through May 25. Location: 1 Wusi Dajie, Dongcheng
District. Tel: 6401-2252.

Master paintings -- The Beijing Institute of Painting is holding an
exhibition featuring its collection of works by Qi Baishi, one of the
greatest artists of traditional Chinese painting and its honorary
president.

The exhibition is to mark the 40th anniversary of the founding of the
Beijing Institute of Painting and the 40th anniversary of master Qi
Baishi's death.

Time: 9 am-4 pm, through May 18. Location: China National Art Museum,
1 Wusi Dajie, Dongcheng District. Tel: 6401-2252.

Painting institute -- The Chinese Traditional Painting Research
Institute is presenting over 100 art works created by teachers from
the institute in the past year at the exhibition hall of the
institute.

The exhibition features figure paintings, landscape paintings, flower
and bird paintings and Chinese calligraphy. Artists joining the
exhibition include Wang Yingchun, Long Rui, Deng Lin, Li Baolin, Xie
Zhigao, Li Yansheng, Zhan Gengxi, Gong Wensuo, Qiu Jimu, Liu Kun, Shu
Jianxin, Wu Xun, and Xing Shaochen. Since last May the artists have
travelled around the country, collecting creative materials and
getting artistic inspiration.

Time: 9 am-5 pm, through May 17. Location: Chinese Traditional
Painting Research Institute, 54 Xisanhuan Beilu, Xicheng District.
Tel: 6841-1369.
_________________________________________________________________

_Date: 05/17/97_
_Author: _

***************************************************************************