China's biggest open-air classical music festival concludes on Sunday in Shanghai

The Chenshan Grassland Music Festival, China's biggest open-air classical music festival, wrapped up on Sunday at Chenshan Botanical Garden in Shanghai, offering audiences a feast of classical music for 12 consecutive years.

The two-day festival featured renowned conductors Xu Zhong and Nikolay Alexeev, pianist Kong Xiangdong, opera singers such as tenor Shi Yijie, Wang Chong and Zhou Xiaolin, as well as St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra and Shanghai Opera House Symphony Orchestra.

With a bunch of masterpieces from Italian composer Giacomo Puccini and Russian composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky presented, including Che gelida manina, E lucevan le stele and Bimba dagli occhi pieni di malia from the former, and the Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat Minor, Op. 23 and Italian Capriccio, Op. 45 from the latter, audiences were able to feast on the world's best classical music freely on the green.

Hosted by Shanghai Media Group and Shanghai International Culture Association, the Chenshan Grassland Music Festival was launched in 2012, aiming to promote classical music to a broader audience.

Maestro Xu Zhong, a leading Chinese orchestra conductor and president of Shanghai Opera House, first stepped on the stage of the festival 10 years ago, when he served as the music artistic director and chief conductor of the Teatro Massimo Bellini in Italy.

This time, Xu expressed a bigger ambition to bring Shanghai-produced opera to a wider world stage. "The Chenshan Grassland Music Festival is finished, and it showcased Shanghai's image as an international cultural metropolis. Also, we at Shanghai Opera House are actively preparing a performance tour to some of the world's leading opera houses, to show global audiences Shanghai-made opera."

Tenor Shi Yijie was also an old friend of the festival. Following his performance in 2019, this is his second time on Chenshan's stage. Known as one of the representative singers who has performed the Bel Canto works on stages around the globe.

Shi specializes in the works of Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini and Mozart, and has attracted large number of fans from both home and abroad.

"Compared with the concert hall, I actually prefer to perform outdoors, where the stage is closer to the audience, and both the performers and the audience can be more relaxed. Although opera originated in Europe and is still relatively new to Chinese audiences, I believe it will capture more fans and see better development in the future," said Shi.

Dong Liji, 48, from the international education industry, is one of the returning audience members to this annual event.

"I was here too last year. Although I am not an expert in art or classical music, the festival offered us a way to relieve pressure and get close to international culture and arts at a high level with an affordable price. I personally value such a chance very much," said Dong.