The Beijing Music Festival has always been dedicated to presenting quality programs as well as bringing top caliber artists face to face with music enthusiasts. For its 19th edition, the festival has brought in legendary Canadian director Robert Carsen for the first of a series of master classes called “Masterclass: in Conversation.”

The Beijing Music Festival has brought in legendary Canadian director Robert Carsen for the first of a series of master classes called "Masterclass: in Conversation."

A rare occasion for opera professionals and enthusiasts in China—to be tete-a-tete with Robert Carsen, the director behind “The Ring of the Nibelungs,” which made a big splash when it premiered in Shanghai six years ago.

Carsen played video footages of many of his signature productions as examples, from dramas to comedies, and from early baroque right through modern pieces today. The class examines different aspects of theatrical production from writing and choreograhpy, to directing and even the nuanced uses of elements like fire and water.

Carsen is also on another mission in China. He has brought his highly-acclaimed directorial production of Benjamin Britten’s opera “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at the Poly Theater over the weekend.

This is also the China premiere of the one of the best operatic adaptations of Shakespeare. On the 25th anniversary of the production by Carsen, the piece kick starts a five-year collaboration plan between Beijing Music Festival and the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence.

Carsen says he would like to describe the production as “25 years new” rather than “25 years old” because he has a strong cast and crew such as choreographer Matthew Bourne, costume designer Michael Levine and conductor Steuart Bedford.

And every time he restages the opera, he tries to fit in the touring theater. And it is no surprise that he calls the “Dream” his favorite of all the Shakespeare operas he has directed.

“It’s my favorite production of all the Shakespeare operas I’ve done. There is something in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ that moves us because of the conjuction of the words and the music. And bringing these two things together makes something very powerful. and it also makes us laugh,” he said.

The masterclass series is co-presented by the Beijing Music Festival and the KT Wong Foundation, an independent organization dedicated to developing cultural exchanges between China and the West.

The Beijing Music Festival has an even more ambitious plan: presenting a series of events to explore the diverse skills of the leading professionals in the field of opera. The world’s top directors, conductors, singers, composers and set designers will be invited to share their creative ideas.