Guangzhou Opera House

Guangzhou Opera House is located in the core area of Zhujiang New Town, Guangzhou. It was invested by Guangzhou Municipality and took 5 years to complete. Designed by renowned architect Zaha Hadid with the "double pebble" concept, and equipped with first-class acoustics created by acoustics master Sir Harold Marshall, it has earned international acclaim as "One of the World's Top 10 Opera Houses" (ranked by USA Today) and "The World's Most Spectacular Opera House" (ranked by The Daily Telegraph, UK). The theater features an opera hall with 1,687 seats, a experimental theater with 350 seats, and three rehearsal halls with different functions. It officially opened on May 9, 2010. It is operated by China Performing Arts Agency under China Arts and Entertainment Group, a central cultural enterprise. The theater, operating under the "Guangda Model" of central-local cooperation and market-oriented management, and with the strategic positioning of "rooted in the Pearl River Delta, cooperating in the Greater Bay Area, and connecting to the world," has become a successful example of market operation in the theater industry through innovation and diversified management. Since its opening, Guangzhou Opera House has hosted performances and produced artistic works based on the principles of "internationality, innovation, originality, and exploration." More than 1,400 Chinese and foreign art troupes and over 32,000 artists have brought over 4,300 wonderful performances to more than 5 million audiences. Many international maestros such as Andris Nelsons, Simon Rattle, Valery Gergiev, Zubin Mehta, Jonas Kaufmann, and Lang Lang have performed on its stage and become contracted artists of Guangzhou Opera House. The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Teatro alla Scala, and Mariinsky Theatre have all performed there successively. The theater has also co-produced several operas with prestigious opera houses such as Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Metropolitan Opera House in New York, and Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London. Moreover, it gathered global artists to produce operas like "Marco Polo," plays like "The Metamorphosis" and "Breathing," experimental theater "Being and Time 2.0," online drama "Waiting for Godot," and co-produced with art institutions in Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao works such as musical "Lovers in Morning and Evening" and dance drama "Dance Steps to Find," which have gained wide acclaim both domestically and internationally. Meanwhile, Guangzhou Opera House has also held over 2,100 public art education events, benefiting more than 800,000 audiences. It established the first children's choir, children's ballet troupe, and youth marching band directly under a theater in China, and created a unique "classroom × stage" model, nurturing 13,319 young art talents. It also built "Chuang Yi Guan," a professional exchange and learning platform for arts management. In recent years, the theater has continuously innovated in art through technology, collaborating with various parties to explore the construction of a "5G Smart Theater," holding over 130 online performances and events, greatly expanding the reach of art. The theater has also become the "city's living room" by hosting large-scale international cultural exchange events. In the future, Guangzhou Opera House will continue to take the promotion and popularization of culture and arts as its mission, striving to represent China's cultural image and ranks among the world's first-class theaters.