“Originated in China”: Western opera and international practices in the Beijing National Centre for the Performing Arts

Abstract

The international reputation of Western operas – with artists and producers moving across the world’s opera houses – has become even more global in recent years. Nevertheless, the field of opera has never been analyzed in terms of strategies to foster this vocation in line with the development of the emerging markets outside Europe. China is one of the most flourishing among them in terms of the creation of grand theaters able to perform Western opera together with a strong indigenous opera tradition. Due to the novelty of such appealing context, a case study analysis would provide an evidence-based account of the questions raised as to how this ambivalence is managed: How does a Chinese opera house performing Western opera find its legitimacy in the international arena? Which are the artistic and production strategies fitting under the definition of international practices? Why is the Chinese context appealing to the Western opera industry? This paper, therefore, aims to address such questions by examining the international practices of the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA) in Beijing, in view of the process of building a reputation in the global opera network, with a particular focus on the artistic program, casting choices, the attractive power of the theatre and the exchange of expertise between Western and Chinese operatic contexts.

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