THE Sixth Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Culture and Arts Festival will open this Friday. With Shenzhen as the main venue for the first time, the month-long event will feature 75 productions, 148 performances, 25 exhibitions, nearly 100 free public activities and arts education programs, and a number of original youth productions.

The opening performance, at the Bay Opera of Shenzhen on Friday evening, will present the Guangdong-produced symphonic suite “Pearl River,” conducted by Huang Yi and performed by the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra and the Shenzhen Opera and Dance Theater Chorus. Through powerful symphonic movements, it pays tribute to the Pearl River as the mother river and recounts the story of the Greater Bay Area.

That same evening, landmarks in all 11 GBA cities will light up simultaneously, with large screens scrolling festival content to create a citywide celebratory atmosphere.

The closing ceremony will take place on Dec. 3 at the Xinghai Concert Hall in Guangzhou, featuring a concert version of Verdi’s classic opera “La Traviata,” with world-renowned baritone Leo Nucci joining local orchestras and choirs for an international-standard finale.

Of the 75 productions in this year’s event, 36 will make their GBA debuts, cementing the region’s status as a core destination for national premieres.

International stars include opera diva Anna Netrebko, who makes her Shenzhen debut; pianist Wang Yuja with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in a conductorless performance at the Xinghai Concert Hall; violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, returning after 15 years; Grammy-winning jazz singer Diana Krall; and Finnish conducting prodigy Tarmo Peltokoski, who will lead the Hong Kong Philharmonic in Mahler’s “Symphony No. 8 in E-flat major.”

Domestic highlights include the stage trilogy of the hit IP “Blossoms,” performed in full for the first time across two Guangzhou theaters in a nine-hour marathon; the National Ballet of China with “Swan Lake” and “The Red Detachment of Women”; and seven opera genres gathering more than a dozen Plum Blossom Award winners, from the hit Wu opera “Three Battles with the White Bone Demon” to Cantonese opera “Lady Xian” and Teochew opera “Li Shangyin.”

Shenzhen-produced dance drama “Wing Chun” and Hakka opera “Misty Rain at Songkou” draw on Lingnan kung fu and overseas-Chinese memories to tell GBA and Chinese stories.

The exhibition section includes “Tide Watching: Shanghai School and the Modern Transformation of 20th-Century Chinese Painting” at the Guangdong Museum of Art (new venue), alongside “Reform Mission: Guangdong Art Centennial Exhibition” and an exhibition of Chen Jialing’s art, spread across venues in Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao.

The festival aims to create a “theater without walls,” extending performances and cultural activities into commercial districts, campuses, old streets, and urban landmarks, with nearly 100 free public events.

For the first time, a “Shaanxi Culture Week” will be held, inviting Shaanxi as the guest province of honor, bringing six classic Qinqiang operas.(Tang Li)