Lucia di Lammermoor  features Chinese-Canadian soprano Zhang Liping. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Lucia di Lammermoor, a coproduction by Russia's Mariinsky Theatre and the National Center for the Performing Arts, will be staged in Beijing from April 9 to 12 as the opener for the NCPA Opera Festival.

Conducted by Valery Gergiev, and directed and designed by Yannis Kokkos, the opera will be performed by both Chinese and Western singers.

"The National Center for the Performing Arts has tried to present a variety of operas for the audiences since its 2007 founding," says NCPA's vice-president Zhao Tiechun.

He adds that the ties between the NCPA and Mariinsky Theatre－one of the most prestigious theaters in Russia－go back many years.

Mariinsky's opera and ballet company performed at the NCPA's opening in December 2007. The company has also toured in China. In 2014, Mariinsky Theatre and the NCPA collaborated on Pyotr Tchaikovsky's three-act opera, Eugene Onegin, in which Gergiev conducted the NCPA orchestra and choir.