The National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts, also known as Weiwuying, plans to present nearly 50 productions by the end of the year, including performances by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and “2024 Jazz at Weiwuying.”
In its schedule published on Tuesday last week for the second half of the year from July 24, the arts center said the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra is returning after six years on Dec. 5, along with renowned conductor Sir Simon Rattle, and is to perform Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 7 in E Minor.
The 2024 Jazz at Weiwuying production, to be staged in August, is to feature 86-year-old jazz musician Charles Lloyd’s The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow, and the Rich Huang Jazz Quintet’s Rich in the Jazz Age featuring 74-year-old Rich Huang (黃瑞豐), who has been dubbed the “Drum King of Taiwan.”
Photo courtesy of the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts
Weiwuying said that it would also present operas, including Italian composer Giacomo Puccini’s Manon Lescaut in September to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Puccini’s death.
The opera, a tale of ill-fated romance set in France and Louisiana during King Louis XV’s reign, is Weiwuying’s annual flagship production brought to life in conjunction with the Slovene National Theatre Maribor from Slovenia and the Teatro Colon Buenos Aires from Argentina.
During the annual open house event, Camille Saint-Saens’ The Carnival of the Animals would be performed in the concert hall, the home of the largest pipe organ in Asia with 9,085 pipes, Chien said.
The arts center is to open its opera house, concert hall, playhouse and recital hall on National Day on Oct. 10 to the public, Weiwuying general and artistic director Chien Wen-pin (簡文彬) said.
As for dance performances, Weiwuying is to stage The Ballet Concert: Into the Fantasy of Nutcracker II in December, which draws on the themes of dreams and courage from Tchaikovsky’s Christmas classic The Nutcracker, weaving them into a story of a little Taiwanese girl who faces several challenges growing up.
Ticket sales for the shows would open at noon on Wednesday next week 12 for Weiwuying members, while the general public would be able to purchase them from June 19 to 26, the center said.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS