Best bets

Broadway Musicals Wicked in Shanghai

Date: May 6-May 10 - 7:15 pm

Venue: Shanghai Culture Square

Price: 80-780 yuan

An international company of over 70 cast, crew and musicians will travel to China, with an additional 20 local crew and 7 musicians hired in Shanghai. This "eye-poppingly lavish show" includes 300 award-winning costumes, spectacular scenery, lighting and projections and a dazzling array of technical wizardry. Based on the international best-selling novel by Gregory Maguire that ingeniously re-imagines the stories and characters created by L. Frank Baum in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Wicked tells the incredible untold story of an unlikely but profound friendship between two sorcery students.

Helene Grimaud Piano Recital

Date: May 11 - 7:30 pm

Venue: National Center for the Performing Arts

Price: 80-480 yuan

She could be called a Renaissance woman for our times. Helene Grimaud is not just a deeply passionate and committed musical artist whose pianistic accomplishments play a central role in her life. She is a woman with multiple talents that extend far beyond the instrument she plays with such poetic expression and peerless technical control. The French artist has established herself as a committed wildlife conservationist, a compassionate human rights activist and as a writer.

Drama Amber by Meng Jinghui

Date: May 9-11 - 7:30 pm

Venue: National Center for the Performing Arts

Price: 100-500 yuan

When they meet for the first time, Gao Yuan believes he lures Xiaoyou into love, but it turns out the opposite. This young "philosopher", however, does not believe such fact. Indeed, he gets attracted by this uncommon girl, an interpreter at a museum of nature who often introduces the history of dinosaurs to the public. Under her calm look is hidden fiery passion and a little untold secret. Over the course of time, they become attached to each other. The love story unfolds against the urban life of hustle and bustle. He is an insolent guy who believes nothing while she is a willful girl who desires to find a miracle in her life. Neither one speaks what goes on in his or her mind frankly. They torment each other, but still love each other at the same time.

Kunqu Opera The Dream of Red Mansions

Date: May 6-7 - 7:30 pm

Venue: National Center For the Performing Arts

Price: 80-480 yuan

A hard stone is left after Nvwa mends the sky. This stone admires the prosperous human world, so it is reincarnated in rich family with a new body. Because this boy is born with a jade in his mouth, he is named Jia Baoyu (jade). He and his cousin Lin Daiyu keep intimacy of childhood and fall in love. They jointly read Romance of the Western Chamber, and both enjoy first awakening of love.

I Musici

Date: May 10 - 7:30 pm

Venue: National Center for the Performing Arts

Price: 50-380 yuan

The story of I Musici is extraordinary and unrepeatable. Founded in 1951, they are the oldest active chamber group. All over the world, they have made the path to the knowledge of the 18th century Italian music, to Vivaldi and the Four Seasons, recording for the first time ever Vivaldi's masterpiece and selling the astonishing number of more than 25 million copies in various editions, making it one of the most famous pieces in the musical repertoire. They turned the first classic music movie in the 70s, and recorded the first classic music Compact Disc for Philips, bringing the name of Rome, Italy and Italian music in all the world, with their repertoire spreading from the eighteenth century to the contemporary.

NCPA Opera Un Ballo in Maschera

Date: May 24-28 - 7:30

Venue: National Center for the Performing Arts

Price: 100-880 yuan

The Un Ballo in Maschera is adapted based on the story of assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden in the 18th century. Through fictional odd story, the opera reveals Amelia's ambivalence when pursuing extramarital romantic love and safeguarding her husband's dignity, and rolls out the real high life of Italy in the 18th century. Un Ballo in Maschera, La forza del destino and Don Carlo are crowned as the three major masterpieces created by Verdi in his midlife. Un Ballo in Maschera can be described as one of Verdi's most talented works in terms of music, which not only consists of many classical arias, but also achieves the culmination of the Romantic opera from the perspective of art.