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Revolutionary ballet to open Chinese national theatre
2007-09-18
Beijing's controversial China National Grand Theatre will open its doors on September 25 with a performance of one of the nation's most celebrated revolutionary ballets, officials said Tuesday. The Red Detachment of Women ballet will grace the stage of the new opera house, designed by French architect Paul Andreu, as part of a series of performances in the coming weeks for selected guests, theatre officials said. It will open to the public around the end of the year, they added. The "red" ballet, one of eight stage shows allowed during China's tumultuous Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976, was chosen to coincide with the October 15 Communist Party Congress, an event that sets the nation's political course for the coming five years. Andreu's modern "tear drop" design, which has three theatres encased in a gigantic titanium frame and covered by glass, was selected by the Chinese government from among several international and domestic designs in 1998. It has been dogged by controversy with construction postponed for 18 months in the early stages as opponents sought to derail the project, while its reported three-billion-yuan (400-million-dollar) price tag has also been criticised. Detractors, including prominent politicians and architects, were aghast at placing the futuristic building so close to landmarks such as the Forbidden City, the Great Hall of the People and Tiananmen Square. The May 2004 collapse of part of the roof of a terminal building at Paris' Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport -- also designed by Andreu -- added more fuel to opponents' criticism of the theatre. Chinese media also hinted at corruption in the building of the theatre, though the allegations were never publicly proven.
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