The curtain on the Year of Russia in China will be officially raised next
week.
The prestigious Bolshoi Theatre heads to the Great Hall of the People for a
special show on Tuesday. Visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin and President
Hu Jintao will jointly inaugurate the opening ceremony.
Bolshoi's artists and opera singers will stage another performance for an
ordinary Chinese audience at the same venue on Wednesday. The programmes will
include Tchaikovsky's operas "Eugene Onegin" and "Iolanta," and pas de deux from
Khachaturian's ballet "Spartacus."
"Bolshoi will bring its best artists and popular repertories from ballet,
opera and symphony," said Ding Wei, assistant culture minister at a press
conference on Friday.
The Year of Russia in China and the Year of China, to be held in Russia next
year, are part of efforts to strengthen the two countries' strategic
partnership, said Yuri Metelev, councillor of cultural and educational affairs
of the Russian Embassy.
The Year of Russia will see 207 events covering a wide spectrum of areas
including culture, economy and education, Russian First Deputy Prime Minister
Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview with Xinhua News Agency on Thursday.
On the cultural front, Russian artists will bring to China a variety of shows
ranging from ballet, drama and symphony, to folk songs and dances in the next 10
months.
Meanwhile, a spectacular exhibition entitled "Russian Art
in 300 Years," the first of nine major art exhibitions in the Year of Russia,
will run at the National Art Museum from March 22 to May 15. It will showcase
110 paintings from the 18th to 20th century now held at Moscow's Tretyakov Art
Gallery, the country's national museum of fine arts.