Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, March 27, 2003
China's National Grand Theater to be Completed
The construction of China's National Theater is expected to be completed early April, and installation of stage and electromechanical equipment will be finished by August.
The construction of China's National Theater is expected to be completed early April, and installation of stage and electromechanical equipment will be finished by August.
While a Japanese company and a German company have already won the bid to provide the equipment for two of the three halls in thegrand theater, another public bidding process will be held to finda group to outfit the concert hall, said Wang zhengming, spokesmanfor the theater's committee.
Wang said additional construction, a titanium-and-glass oblong shell, has to be added to cover the three major performance halls with a total area of 149,500 square meters.
In addition to construction, the committee has already started training managerial staff for the theater's future operation. Somecandidates for major positions were sent to France and Japan to gain familiarity in the running of international-class theaters.
As for the much-anticipated opening performance of the grand theater, which is expected to held next year, Wang said it had notbeen decided and he could only promise high-quality.
The Grand Theater was designed by French architect Paul Andreu,whose extraordinary proposal beat 68 other candidates in an international bidding process.
It is being erected in spite of past doubts over whether it should be in the company of the solemn Tian'anmen Square, said thepaper.