RENOWNED opera professor Zhou Xiaoyan will lead her students in a series of excerpts from classic operas on each of five weekends starting April 19 at the Shanghai Yihai Theatre.

In order to prepare the programme for the serial opera concerts - entitled "Beautiful Melody and Beautiful Voice" - Zhou and her production team have spent a lot of time winnowing out the best excerpts.

Zhou said, "There are almost 100,000 pieces of opera work in the world, however, the most influential ones amount to no more than 800. We chose over 20 arias out of these, according to the standards of both musicality and popularity, thus they live up to the word 'beautiful'."

The programmes include "Un Bel Di" from Puccini's "Madame Butterfly", "Nessun Dorma" from Puccini's "Turandot", the Overture to Rossini's "The Barber of Seville", "Toreador" from Bizet's "Carmen" and "Libiamo" from Verdi's "La Traviata".

The organizers pointed out the concerts will not only contribute to refining the audience's taste for opera as a "high-brow" art, but also offer young opera singers a grand stage for them to show off their talents and further improve their acting skills.

The symphony orchestra of the Shanghai Opera House will accompany the singers. Zhang Guoyong, the director of the Opera House and renowned conductor Lin Yousheng will take the baton in turn.

7:15pm

April 19, 26, May 3, 10, 17

Shanghai Yihai Theatre

499 Jiangning Lu

Tel: 6237-2595, 6486-9932

60-180 yuan