The choice of a French opera to open the festival honors the French-China cultural exchange project created in 1999 by French president Jacques Chirac and Chinese president Jiang Zemin. "A Year of France in China," bringing a series of events celebrating French heritage and culture to China, begins this month; last year's "A Year of China in France" brought Chinese programs to France.
This year's festival features 24 concerts of internationally known conductors, instrumentalists, and orchestras, as well as traditional Chinese works and the Ming Dynasty-era opera Peony Pavilion. Guests include the Orchestre de Paris, Christoph Eschenbach, Emanuel Ax, the Eroica Trio, and Yo-Yo Ma.
The Beijing Music Festival was created to address China's cultural isolation after the Cultural Revolution by bringing Western music into China. To that end, sixteen of the works included in this year's festival are Chinese premieres.