纽约时报：Chinese Unveil Mammoth Arts Center
今天纽约时报网站的首页图片新闻[i]By [/i][url=http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/k/joseph_kahn/index.html?inline=nyt-per]JOSEPH KAHN[/url]
[i]Published: December 24, 2007[/i]
BEIJING — Compared variously to afloating pearl and a duck egg, the titanium-and-glass half-dome of theNational Center for the Performing Arts formally opened its underwaterentryway to Chinese officials and dignitaries here over the weekend.
The$400 million complex, a concert hall, opera house and theater under onespace age span, is designed to be the center of Chinese culture, justas Tiananmen Square next door was designated this country’s politicalcenter.
The complex’s lush, dazzling interior, sophisticatedacoustics and mechanical wizardry rival any hall in Europe or theUnited States, its promoters say. Chen Ping, the center’s director,proclaimed it “a concrete example of China’s rising soft power andcomprehensive national strength” during the opening ceremony onSaturday night.
Yet the center, designed by the French architectPaul Andreu, has attracted at least as much attention for its costoverruns, safety concerns and provocative aesthetics.
And thehall’s artistic directors, appointed after prolonged bureaucraticsquabbling, had to scramble to line up a credible schedule ofperformances for the premier season, which runs from late Decemberuntil April, organizers said.
The opening event was an eclecticsampler of Chinese and Western musical classics, with two conductors,two orchestras, four choral groups and a half-dozen soloists, a mélangethat showed off the building’s acoustics but underscored its continuingsearch for an artistic mission.
Li Changchun, a senior CommunistParty leader, was the guest of honor at the event, broadcast onnational television. At each interlude in the program camera operatorshustled to the row in front of Mr. Li to record him clapping.
Thecenter joins a list of monoliths designed by foreign architects — thebird’s-nest Olympic stadium and the cantilevered towers of ChinaCentral Television’s new headquarters among them — that have remade theBeijing skyline and projected the soaring ambitions and bulging coffersof the Communist Party leadership.
Mr. Andreu’s creation joinsthe Shanghai Grand Theater, designed by another Frenchman, Jean-MarieCharpentier, as one of the top performance halls in China.
That field will grow crowded, however, as other cities pour hundreds of millions of dollars into their own cultural showcases. [url=http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/h/zaha_hadid/index.html?inline=nyt-per]Zaha Hadid[/url],the London architect, is building an opera house for Guangzhou, aprovincial capital. The architect Carlos Ott, a Canadian born inUruguay, has four contracts for performance halls in smaller cities.
Whetherthis adds up to a cultural renaissance or an edifice contest remainsunclear. China has produced first-rate classical musicians, includingthe pianists Yundi Li, who performed a solo on Saturday night, and [url=http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/l/lang_lang/index.html?inline=nyt-per]Lang Lang[/url].Yet its musical groups, ballets and symphony orchestras have receivedfar less attention than the concert halls. They face financialconstraints, political censorship and public indifference.
“Chinaneeds a top national performance hall of this kind,” Wu Zuqiang, whoheads the center’s arts committee, said in an interview before itopened. “But promoting national culture will take extended efforts, andwill require some adjustments in our approach.”
Officials call the complex the largest performing arts center in the world, twice as big as the [url=http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/k/kennedy_john_f_center_for_the_performing_arts/index.html?inline=nyt-org]Kennedy Center[/url] for the Performing Arts in Washington. It was designed to be conspicuous.
Mr.Andreu said that he envisioned the hall as a tribute to the traditionalChinese image of heaven and earth, round above square. His bubblelikesoaring glass dome encloses several performance spaces and is suspendedabove a shallow pool. Viewed at night, illuminated from within, thedome resembles a spaceship hovering over a calm lake. But on dim dayswhen the haze and dust of Beijing cover the silvery titanium shell, thehall can look no more distinguished than an airport service hangar.
Afew years ago a group of Chinese architects organized a vocal petitioncampaign to protest the design. They said it blended poorly with theStalinist Great Hall of the People next door and high vermilion wallsof the imperial Forbidden City across the street.
Their effort received a boost in 2004 when the roof of a new terminal building at the [url=http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/d/charles_de_gaulle/index.html?inline=nyt-per]Charles de Gaulle[/url]International Airport near Paris, which Mr. Andreu also designed,collapsed. Some critics of the design said that the complex’s entryway,a subterranean glass-enclosed corridor extending 250 feet under theartificial lake, posed safety risks in the event of structural problemsor a terrorist attack.
The project faced stoppages and reviews, and was several years late and many tens of millions of dollars over budget.
In Chinese media interviews, Mr. Andreu has spoken of the “enormousstress” surrounding construction, including the cleaning bills afterdust and sandstorms buffeted the dome’s exterior. But he defended hishypermodern approach.
“Your people do not look back,” he toldthe state-run People’s Daily newspaper. “They have a history and areproud of it. But they live and look ahead.”
Criticism has fadedsomewhat since the complex began a soft opening in October and invitedguests had their first glimpses of the elaborate interior.
Thedome’s inside is paneled with long spans of Brazilian mahogany, givingthe expanse an unexpectedly warm feel. The floors are paved with softwhite, yellow and gray marble from 22 Chinese provinces, selected sothat their grains form continuous lines.
The walls of thetheater, the smallest of the performance spaces, are covered in thickpadded silk, divided in strips of red, purple and tangerine. Theceiling of the cool-white concert hall consists of undulating waves ofacoustic panels that resemble abstract art.
For its openingseason the center has relied heavily on foreign talent. The first bigconcert open to the public is scheduled for New Year’s Eve, when [url=http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/seiji_ozawa/index.html?inline=nyt-per]Seiji Ozawa[/url] is to conduct the Chinese [url=http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/national_symphony_orchestra/index.html?inline=nyt-org]National Symphony Orchestra[/url]. Lang Lang, the soprano [url=http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/kathleen_battle/index.html?inline=nyt-per]Kathleen Battle[/url], and the Russian violinist Vadim Repin are to perform solos.
Later in the season [url=http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/lorin_maazel/index.html?inline=nyt-per]Lorin Maazel[/url] will bring the [url=http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/new_york_philharmonic/index.html?inline=nyt-org]New York Philharmonic[/url] to town, and [url=http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/kurt_masur/index.html?inline=nyt-per]Kurt Masur[/url] will conduct the London Philharmonic.
Forballet the center’s managers turned to the Russian Kirov, which plansto stage such dance classics as “Prince Igor,” “Swan Lake,”Balanchine’s “Jewels” and “Le Corsaire” in succession.
[url=http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/cameron_mackintosh/index.html?inline=nyt-per]Cameron Mackintosh[/url],the British impresario, has created a Mandarin version of “LesMisérables” for the hall, though the timing of that performance has notbeen announced.
The center also will be host to a long list ofChinese performance groups. Competing symphony orchestras in Beijingand Shanghai plan multiple appearances. The Shanghai Opera House willstage “Othello,” and the National Ballet of China will perform “Romeoand Juliet.” A dance ensemble of the People’s Liberation Army Air Forceplans to revive “Sister Jiang,” a classic ballet of early Socialism.
Ina recent interview with the Chinese magazine Oriental Outlook, WangZhengming, the center’s deputy director, said the national center isunder pressure to feature Chinese works but said his choices arelimited.
“It’s troublesome because opera and ballet are reallyimported art forms,” he said. “We’re better in ballet, but our mostfamous works are the red classics from 40 years ago. Opera is a biggerproblem because the most popular classics and new works are all fromoverseas.”
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