Art beat in October

Must-see opera Parsifal comes to Beijing

Whether you love opera or not, you should go to this: Parsifal, co-produced by Beijing Music Festival, Salzburg Easter Festival, Sachsische Staatsoper Dresden and Teatro Real Madrid. It took 25 years for Richard Wagner to finish the three-act opera based on a 13th-century epic poem about Arthurian knight Parzival and his quest for the Holy Grail. It is Wagner's last full-length opera and he made it particularly for his Bayreuth Festival. He himself preferred to describe Parsifal not as an opera, but "a festival play for the consecration of the stage". 7:30 pm, Oct 29 and 31. Poly Theater, Beijing. 010-6506-5343, 6506-5345, 6507-1833, 6507-2833.

East meets West in art exhibition

Chinese-born American artist Jian Guo Xu's solo exhibition opened in the National Museum of China on Oct 18. The exhibition, Beyond Contemporary Art: The Artistic Vision of Jian Guo Xu, showcases more than 50 pieces of Xu's work in the form of painting, installations and multimedia. Xu, 62, has spent the past 29 years in the US. He is known for his works that bridge Eastern and Western cultures by fusing Chinese ink painting with Western fine arts.

Related: Bridging cultures with art

9 am-5 pm, until Oct 29. National Museum of China, 16 East Chang'an Avenue, Dongcheng district, Beijing.

Lang retrospective

Thanks to a generous donation from the family of Lang Jingshan (1892-1995), the National Art Museum of China is presenting an ongoing exhibition celebrating the lifelong achievements of Lang, known as China's "Top Photographer" as early as the 1930s and the "Father of Asian Photography". Lang became obsessed with photography in middle school. Working as a photographic journalist, he developed an interest in artistic photography by borrowing the elements of Chinese ink painting, and further formed the unique style of "composition picture". His works especially express the aesthetics of paintings of the Song (960-1279) and Yuan (1271-1368) dynasties.

For more photos, here

9 am-5 pm, no entrance after 4 pm, through Oct 30. National Art Museum of China, 1 Wusi Street, Dongcheng district, Beijing. 010-6400-1476.