Franco Amadei, cultural counselor of the Italian embassy in China, talks to the media at the opening ceremony of the 18th Meet in Beijing Arts Festival. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Among the many programs at the festival, five-time Grammy Award-winning group, The Swingle Singers, which was formed in 1962 by US vocalist and jazz musician Ward Lamar Swingle, will perform at the Beijing Concert Hall on May 19. String performance group the Black Velvet String Quartet, which features four young US musicians, will perform at the National Library Arts Center on May 11.

To mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of the modern European circus, French performance company Cheptel Aleikoum and its musical offspring, Circa Tsuica, will bring their new circus show, Opus 7, on May 13 to the Mong Man Wai Concert Hall at Tsinghua University.

Art troupes from China will also share the stage with international artists. The Beijing People's Art Theater will stage three plays, The Lawyer, The Gin Game and Li Bai, at the Capital Theater.

Four young Peking Opera actresses－Li Li, Jiang Xiaoyue, Yang Xiaoyang and Yin Chanjuan－will give a show at Beijing's Tianqiao Performing Arts Center on May 6. As the students of Zhang Huoding, one of the country's best known Peking Opera stars, these actresses will interpret classic Peking Opera roles once performed by Zhang, such as Bai Suzhen from The Legend of White Snake and Zhu Yingtai from Butterfly Lovers.

To mark the conclusion of this year's Meet in Beijing Arts Festival, the dance drama, Confucius, which will be produced and performed by the China National Opera and Dance Drama Theater, will be staged at Beijing's Tianqiao Performing Arts Center from May 29 to 31.

Directed and choreographed by Kong Dexin, a 77th-generation direct descendent of Confucius, the dance drama follows the legendary scholar's journey. Premiered in 2013, the show was staged at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in the US last year. In 2018, the dance drama will tour 15 Chinese cities, including Hangzhou, Shanghai and Chongqing.