Photo: Courtesy of China Shanghai International Arts Festival

The 22nd China Shanghai International Arts Festival (CSIAF) is set to kick off on Sunday, bringing audiences a long-anticipated feast presented by global artists after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The one-month festival will open with three high-level performances. The first performance on Saturday, is Gala Concert by Christoph Eschenbach and CSIAF Orchestra. The CSIAF Orchestra is composed of principal players from several top Chinese domestic symphony orchestras, festival organizers shared at a press conference on Wednesday.

One of the world's most prominent conductors, Eschenbach will lead the Saturday concert jointly with renowned Chinese conductor Xu Zhong. 

"It's amazing that so many people come together to create music in a 'friendship' way," Eschenbach told the Global Times after the press conference.

Eschenbach spoke highly of his collaboration with Chinese musicians this time. 

"I'm amazed by how well they play," said Eschenbach. 

"We've achieved very much in the past two days [of rehearsal]. I think we can already perform tomorrow."

The concert will be held outdoors at the Shanghai Exhibition Center Fountain Square. Maxim Vengerov, one of the most acclaimed violin soloists in the global classical music community, and Angela Gheorghiu, one of today's most talented sopranos in the opera world, will each present their repertoire during the concert as well.

For the audience, the CSIAF not only offers them a window to get closer to top international art performances, but also provides them with a good opportunity to know traditional Chinese culture and art better.

The other two heavyweight opening performances are The Peony Pavilion by Shanghai Kunju Opera Troupe, and Ode to the Silk Road Symphony Concert. 

The Peony Pavilion by Shanghai Kunju Opera Troupe will present the essence of ancient Chinese dramatist Tang Xianzu's most famous tragicomedy play on Sunday. Talented young performers from the Shanghai Kunju Opera Troupe will show the unique elegance of China's traditional Kunqu Opera through this 400-year-old masterpiece.

"I hope that after watching The Peony Pavilion, our audience, particularly the young ones, will fall in love with Kunqu Opera, and have a better understanding of the charm of traditional Chinese culture," the play's director Guo Xiaonan told the Global Times.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The Ode to the Silk Road Symphony Concert, which will be held on October 19, is being jointly launched by Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and Shanghai Museum as a creative collaboration.

Taking inspiration from the artifacts in the Shanghai Museum's collection, the concert showcases several generations of Chinese composers' relentless exploration of the Silk Road theme, said Zhou Ping, head of Shanghai Symphony Orchestra.

The concert will be an artistic presentation of the historical context, global vision and contemporary values of the BRI, said Zhou. 

"It will be a dialogue between Western and traditional Chinese instruments, showing audience the variety of cultures of BRI countries," she told the Global Times.

Nearly 80 remarkable performance projects are set to take center stage during this year's CSIAF, including 12 world premieres. Renowned world-class troupes and artists, such as maestro conductors Eschenbach and Valery Gergiev, tenor Plácido Domingo, the Mariinsky Theatre, and the American Ballet Theatre, are going to gather on the stages in Shanghai to present excellent performances.

On the whole, there will be more than 400 performances and exhibitions of all kinds during the festival, "a growth of more than 20 percent since 2019," according to the CSIAF organizers.

The festival is set to last until November 15.