The National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts, also known as Weiwuying, plans to present nearly 50 productions by the end of the year, including performances by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and “2024 Jazz at Weiwuying.”
In its schedule published on Tuesday last week for the second half of the year from July 24, the arts center said the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra is returning after six years on Dec. 5, along with renowned conductor Sir Simon Rattle, and is to perform Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 7 in E Minor.
The 2024 Jazz at Weiwuying production, to be staged in August, is to feature 86-year-old jazz musician Charles Lloyd’s The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow, and the Rich Huang Jazz Quintet’s Rich in the Jazz Age featuring 74-year-old Rich Huang (黃瑞豐), who has been dubbed the “Drum King of Taiwan.”
Photo courtesy of the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts
Weiwuying said that it would also present operas, including Italian composer Giacomo Puccini’s Manon Lescaut in September to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Puccini’s death.
The opera, a tale of ill-fated romance set in France and Louisiana during King Louis XV’s reign, is Weiwuying’s annual flagship production brought to life in conjunction with the Slovene National Theatre Maribor from Slovenia and the Teatro Colon Buenos Aires from Argentina.
During the annual open house event, Camille Saint-Saens’ The Carnival of the Animals would be performed in the concert hall, the home of the largest pipe organ in Asia with 9,085 pipes, Chien said.
The arts center is to open its opera house, concert hall, playhouse and recital hall on National Day on Oct. 10 to the public, Weiwuying general and artistic director Chien Wen-pin (簡文彬) said.
As for dance performances, Weiwuying is to stage The Ballet Concert: Into the Fantasy of Nutcracker II in December, which draws on the themes of dreams and courage from Tchaikovsky’s Christmas classic The Nutcracker, weaving them into a story of a little Taiwanese girl who faces several challenges growing up.
Ticket sales for the shows would open at noon on Wednesday next week 12 for Weiwuying members, while the general public would be able to purchase them from June 19 to 26, the center said.
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