The China National Center for the Performing Arts Orchestra () is a Chinese orchestra based in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

. It is the resident orchestra of the National Center for the Performing Arts (NCPA) located in the

Xicheng District Xicheng District () is a district of Beijing. Xicheng District spans , covering the western half of the old city (largely inside the 2nd Ring Road - the eastern half is Dongcheng District), and has 706,691 inhabitants (2000 Census). Its postal ...

of Beijing. The NCPA Orchestra and its related organization, the China NCPA Chorus (国家大剧院合唱团), serve primarily as the resident musical ensembles of the NCPA, supporting opera and ballet productions at the theater. The China NCPA Orchestra was founded in March 2010, with full funding from the Chinese government, three months after the China NCPA Chorus was founded. About 60 musicians were selected from a global pool of candidates with an average age of 27. For the six years since its establishment, the average age of the musicians has increased from 27 to 31, and the total number of musicians has been doubled. The NCPA Orchestra undertook its first North American tour in late 2014. Chen Zuohuang was the founding music director of the orchestra, and now holds the title of conductor laureate. Since 2012, the orchestra's chief conductor has been Lü Jia. The orchestra's current assistant conductor is Yuan Ding.

Performances

In addition to performing core repertoire operas by European composers, including

Turandot ''Turandot'' (; see below) is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, posthumously completed by Franco Alfano in 1926, and set to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni. ''Turandot'' best-known aria is " Nessun dorma", ...

Tosca ''Tosca'' is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900. The work, based on Victorien Sardou's 1887 French-language drama ...

The Barber of Seville ''The Barber of Seville, or The Useless Precaution'' ( it, Il barbiere di Siviglia, ossia L'inutile precauzione ) is an ''opera buffa'' in two acts composed by Gioachino Rossini with an Italian libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based ...

Lohengrin Lohengrin () is a character in German Arthurian literature. The son of Parzival (Percival), he is a knight of the Holy Grail sent in a boat pulled by swans to rescue a maiden who can never ask his identity. His story, which first appears in Wolf ...

Aida ''Aida'' (or ''Aïda'', ) is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni. Set in the Old Kingdom of Egypt, it was commissioned by Cairo's Khedivial Opera House and had its première there on 24 Decemb ...

, Otello,

Nabucco ''Nabucco'' (, short for Nabucodonosor ; en, "Nebuchadnezzar") is an Italian-language opera in four acts composed in 1841 by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera. The libretto is based on the biblical books of 2 Kings, J ...

, the NCPA Orchestra has accompanied most of its own productions of Chinese operas including

The Chinese Orphan ''The Chinese Orphan'' (Chinese: 赵氏孤儿) is a 2011 Chinese-language western-style opera Chinese contemporary classical opera (Chinese: 当今古典歌剧; ''dāngjīn gŭdiăn gējù''; "contemporary classical opera") is a musical art form d ...

(

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

: 赵氏孤儿),

Rickshaw Boy ''Rickshaw Boy'' or ''Camel Xiangzi'' () is a novel by the Chinese author Lao She about the life of a fictional Beijing rickshaw man. It is considered a classic of 20th-century Chinese literature. History Lao She began the novel in spring, 1 ...

(

: 骆驼祥子) and

Visitors on the Snow Mountain Visitor, in English and Welsh law, is an academic or ecclesiastical title. Visitor or Visitors may also refer to: Geography * Visitor (mountain), a mountain in eastern Montenegro * Lake Visitor, a mountain lake in eastern Montenegro Literature ...

(

: 冰山上的来客), The Long March (

: 长征),

A Village Teacher ''A Village Teacher'' (Chinese: 山村女教师) is a 2009 Chinese-language western-style opera by composer Hao Weiya to a libretto by Liu Heng. Liu is well known for the scripts to films like ''Ju Dou ''Ju Dou'' () is a 1990 film directed b ...

(

: 山村女教师), The Red Guards on Honghu Lake (

: 洪湖赤卫队),

The Dawns Here are Quiet ''The Dawns Here Are Quiet'' (russian: А зори здесь тихие, A zori zdes tikhie) is a 1972 Soviet war drama directed by Stanislav Rostotsky based on Boris Vasilyev's novel of the same name. The film deals with antiwar themes and fo ...

(

: 这里的黎明静悄悄), and

Xi Shi Xi Shi (Hsi Shih; , ) was, according to legends, one of the renowned Four Beauties of ancient China. She was said to have lived during the end of the Spring and Autumn period in Zhuji, the capital of the ancient State of Yue. In traditional ...

(

: 西施). Apart from performing the operatic and symphonic repertoire, the NCPA Orchestra together with the NCPA Chorus and other musical groups has been performing series of educational Weekend Matinee Concerts and salons at its home venue as well as in schools, hospitals, museums, and other communities.

References

External links

Chinese-language page on the members of the NCPA Orchestra

English-language page on the NCPA Orchestra conductors and musicians

National Center for the Performing Arts (Chinese-language page)

The NCPA Orchestra's Facebook page

The NCPA Orchestra's Weibo (Chinese)

ConcertoNet website review of 9 November 2014 concert, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
{{authority control China orchestras Musical groups established in 2010 National orchestras 2010 establishments in China