What's on

Stephen Kovacevich Piano Recital

When: Dec 4, 7:30 pm

Where: Tianjin Grand Theater

Stephen Kovacevich is one of the most revered musicians of his generation. He has won admiration for his interpretation of Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart and Schubert.

A Grammy nominated artist, Kovacevich has a long list of recordings for Philips and EMI.

Born in Los Angeles, Kovacevich laid the foundation for his career as concert pianist at the age of 11.

After moving to England to study with Dame Myra Hess, he made his European debut at the Wigmore Hall in London in 1961.

Since then, he has appeared with many of the world's finest orchestras and conductors, including Hans Graf, Bernard Haitink, Kurt Masur, Simon Rattle, Georg Solti and Yannick Nezet-Seguin.

The Play That Goes Wrong

When: Dec 5-8 and 10-15, 7:30 pm

Where: Great Theater of China, Shanghai

The Play That Goes Wrong, a Broadway and West End award-winning smash comedy, is a hilarious hybrid of Monty Python and Sherlock Holmes.

It begins before the curtain has even been raised, as the audience are present while the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society prepare to stage their new production－the 1920s murder mystery Murder at Haversham Manor.

However the set is not yet complete and there is no time to finish it … the show must go on!

With a murder (and a moving corpse) established from the beginning, the murder mystery gets into full flow. But the props start to disappear, actors go missing and the set begins to collapse around, and often on, the cast.

Liberation

When: Dec 6 and 7, 8 pm

Where: Shenzhen Grand Theater

Directed by Zhang Jigang, Liberation premiered at the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing in 2009 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

The play focuses on foot binding, an old tradition for Chinese women which ended with the falling of Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

Village girl, Xiaoxiao was told at a very young age that "a girl's feet do not belong to herself".

She tries to fight against the practice. She gives in to binding her feet under overwhelming social pressure.

It's a tragic story with a strong message: Women finally see the day of freedom when the size of their feet no longer measures their beauty.

Urna Chahar-Tugehi

When: Dec 8, 7:30 pm

Where: The Forbidden City Concert Hall

Singer Urna Chahar-Tugehi was born into a family of herders in the grassland of the Ordos Plateau in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, a society where song was a ubiquitous part of everyday life. Her first musical training was learning to play the yangqin－Chinese dulcimer (a type of zither)－from a Shanghai Conservatory of Music professor who was visiting Hohhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia.

At the age of 18, she began studying at the Shanghai Conservatory, a challenging step since she had no knowledge of Mandarin.

In 2003, she was awarded the RUTH prize in Germany for Best International Artist.

The Light of Heart

When: Dec 16, 7:30 pm

Where: Beijing Tianqiao Theater

Presented by dancers of the National Ballet of China, ballet drama The Light of Heart tells the story of a romance between violinist Nian Yu and a Dunhuang art protector Wu Ming.

Nian learned about the Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes art while in Paris, which seduced her into visiting Gansu province. There she met and fell in love with Wu, who protects the murals.

Dunhuang was the starting point of the ancient Silk Road. This connected the city to the ups and downs of ancient China, the Middle East and parts of Europe over the centuries. The National Ballet of China has mixed ancient and modern ballet techniques to create a project that matches the glamorous and mysterious grottoes.

Japanese New Media Artist Ryoichi Kurokawa China Tour

When: Dec 28, 8 pm

Where: Tango Live Beijing

Japanese artist Ryoichi Kurokawa uses various media－video, installation, recording and live performances－in order to produce exceptional audiovisual sound pieces, which he has been pioneering and presenting internationally since 1999. He describes his works as time-based sculptures and considers sound and image as a single unit.

His works are a composition of symphonies, both imagined and produced as well as recorded. This, with the combination of video material and computer-generated aesthetics, changes how the spectator views the familiar.

Spring Awakening

When: Jan 10-18, 7:30 pm; Jan 11, 12 and 18, 2 pm

Where: Shanghai Culture Square

Spring Awakening, the 2006 emotionally powerful, sexually frank and Tony-winning musical by Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater, has been staged around the world and is heading to China.

The staging is directed and choreographed by Spencer Liff, who choreographed the acclaimed 2015 Broadway revival of Spring Awakening.

Liff directs and choreographs Spring Awakening with an entirely Chinese cast which speaks in Chinese and sings in English.

The musical is a modern landmark in the theater of the United States; an explicit tale of 19th century German teenagers coming to grips with their sexuality, both straight and gay.

Sater's lyrics and book deals head-on with such controversial topics as abortion and suicide.