Three decades after Mao's cultural revolution, China has unveiled its new opera house, a futuristic egg-shaped complex which looks to be floating on water.
Former president and opera lover Jiang Zemin was the first person to perform at the National Grand Theatre in Beijing, singing arias from Western and Chinese opera.The former leader of the Communist Party had reportedly said that it was a lifelong ambition to be the first person to sing at the theatre, which began construction in 2001. He had previously sung with Pavarotti when the late tenor toured with The Three Tenors in 2001.
The building houses three theatres - an Opera Hall, a Concert Hall and a Performance Theatre. The first show will be the ballet 'The Red Detachment Of Women', a propaganda tale from the 1960s in which the ballerinas wear military uniforms.
