"The day before yesterday (December 12), the first Shangyin Opera House Gulangyu Opera Competition has just ended, and during next year's Shanghai Spring International Music Festival, we will perform Shangyin-Como's version of The Barber of Seville. It can be said that we have maintained close and high-level cooperation with top Italian music and cultural institutions, and have made positive contributions to the exchange and mutual learning of music culture between China and Italy. On December 14, Liao Changyong, President of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and President of the Shangyin Opera House, announced that Shangyin and the Rossini Opera Festival had reached a cooperation framework agreement.
As one of Italy's leading opera festivals, the Rossini Opera Festival has enjoyed a prestigious reputation on the international stage since its inception in 1984. The city of Pesaro, home to the Rossini Opera Festival, has been a UNESCO City of Music since 2017 and the Italian Capital of Culture. This time, Daniel Vimini, President of the Rossini Opera Festival, and Christine de Chiara, Executive Director of the Rossini Opera Festival, made a special trip from Pesaro to attend the signing ceremony.
"In May this year, when the exhibition "Wonderful Italy – Into the Rossini Opera Festival" opened in Shanghai, I was a guest with Director Christine de Chiara. Daniel Vimini told reporters that in the following months, the two sides finally reached an agreement after in-depth thinking, which led to the signing ceremony of the cooperation framework agreement between the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and the Rossini Opera Festival, which laid the foundation for the two sides to jointly carry out master classes, concerts, activities, lectures, courses and other cooperation.
The reporter learned that the main contents of the cooperation between the two sides include the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and the "Alberto Zeda" Rossini Academy jointly carry out the selection of opera singers; the holding of a master class by Ernesto Placio, artistic director of the Rossini Academy at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music; the promotion of two-way teacher-student exchanges between the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and the Rossini Opera Festival, and the promotion of the cultivation of vocal and opera performance talents and opera stage art talents of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music; and the joint production of Rossini's opera.
Today's signing ceremony is located at No. 1131 Huaihai Middle Road, affectionately known as the "Music Castle" by Shanghai citizens, which was founded in 1905 and used to be the library of Shangyin, which has a history of nearly 120 years. Today, it has become one of Shanghai's most attractive cultural landmarks. Last month, we welcomed Maestro Domingo here, appointing him as Honorary Dean of the Shangyin Opera House and Honorary Professor of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, leaving many fond memories. Liao Changyong told reporters that Shanghai is an important window to show Chinese culture, and the Shanghai Conservatory of Music is also an international stage to show the integration and mutual learning of Chinese and Western music cultures.
In recent years, Shangyin has maintained long-term friendly cooperation and exchanges with Teatro alla Scala, Milan Verdi Conservatory, Opera Como, Florence Conservatory and other troupes and universities. Italy's humanities, arts and music culture have had a profound impact on China. In 2019, Shangyin cooperated with La Scala Opera to introduce two Mozart classic operas, "The Gardener's Girl" and "The Magic Flute", which were launched as repertoire of the China Shanghai International Arts Festival. In May this year, the Italian classic opera "La Traviata" starring Shangyin teachers and students was hard to find at the Shangyin Opera House, and it was highly praised on the stage of the 5th China Opera Festival. Nearly 5,000 people attended the four performances, and audiences across the country were also able to watch them live online.
"Now that we have reached a cooperation with the Rossini Opera Festival, we hope that Shangyin will make artists at home and abroad yearn for it, and hope that our cooperation will bear more wonderful fruits, jointly promote the development and inheritance of music and art, and jointly promote the protection of the intangible cultural heritage of all mankind. Liao Changyong said.
At the same time, the results of the first Shangyin Opera House Gulangyu Opera Competition were announced at the award ceremony held on the evening of December 13, and the organizing committee announced the list of winners after the unanimous recognition of the judges. Finals: Xie Xinyu, Zhang Litao, Qiu Shuhan, Wang Yixuan, Best Stage Performance: Ullege, Li Zihao, Special Award for Chinese Opera: Lin Junliang, Excellence Award: Shen Zhenghao, Zhang Tong, Chen Zhiyuan, Third Prize: Zhang Gonghao, Gu Wenmeng, Amarbold, Second Prize: Zhang Yeying, Luo Yudan, First Prize: Hu Sihao.
The reporter learned that the winners will be invited to participate in two important Sino-foreign joint productions of the Shangyin Opera House in 2024 - "Carmen" to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France and the Shangyin-Como version of "The Barber of Seville", to play the main role and continue to write the "post-competition" chapter of the cultivation of top-notch musical talents. At the same time, the winners will enter the "Gulangyu Star Program" and the "Opera Singers Reserve Program" of Shangyin Opera House, which aims to systematically screen and carefully cultivate outstanding opera singers, and provide program members with a stage to perform at the Shangyin Opera House.
In Liao's view, holding an opera competition is not only to select talents and let the contestants fulfill their musical dreams, but also to test the results of classroom teaching. "Whether the teacher teaches well or not, how well the students master, each school's vocal music education has its own focus. The competition itself is a kind of communication, where the participants learn from each other's strengths, communicate with each other, promote each other, and improve together. Moreover, with such a large-scale selection, the flow and selection of opera talents in a short period of time will be greatly promoted in the long run, and the production and creation of the opera industry will be greatly promoted. ”