Zhang Ziyi to join HK's Cecilia Cheung in new film

Mainland actress Zhang Ziyi will team up with Hong Kong star Cecilia Cheung and South Korean actor Jang Dong-gun, for her new film, a Chinese adaptation of the French epistolary novel Dangerous Liaisons.

The love triangle has Zhang and Cheung rivaling for Jang's affections, against the backdrop of 1930s Shanghai. China's Zonbo Media, which is building a chain of 50 theaters in South Korea, with the Busan International Film Festival, expects the film, whose shooting began on Sept 26, to have a global release.

South Korean director Heo Jin-ho directs the film, whose script has been written by Yan Geling, an established Chinese writer now living in the United States. Zhang Yimou's new film The Flowers of War is based on one of her novels.

Yanni wraps up his four-city tour in Chengdu

Grammy-winning composer and music director Yanni ended his four-city tour of China, with a concert in Chengdu, on Monday evening.

Yanni performed at the Master Card Center of Beijing on Oct 1 and 2, Shanghai Grand Stage on Oct 4, and Haixinsha Park of Guangzhou on Oct 7. Besides his classic works, he also presented pieces from his 2011 album, Truth of Touch.

The tour marked his return to China 14 years after his concert in the Forbidden City in Beijing in 1997 when he won over Chinese audiences with his special composition, The Nightingale.

One day before the Chengdu concert, Yanni visited the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding to adopt a 2-month old female panda. He named the cub Santorini, which means peace in Greek.

NCPA's Rossini opera to have international cast

The National Center for the Performing Arts (NCPA) will produce Rossini's comic opera La Cenerentola, with an international cast drawn from six countries.

The three-act opera will be staged from Oct 20 to 23, and is directed by Romanian director Petrika Ionesco, who has worked with the world's leading opera houses, including Metropolitan and La Scala. Ionesco is also the stage and lighting designer for NCPA's La Cenerentola.

Adapted from the fairy tale of Cinderella in 1817, Rossini's La Cenerentola satirizes money worship and is best known for its complex coloratura.

All the seven Chinese actors and actresses in this work were selected from NCPA's 2011 opera audition.