brief introduction
 
In considering the development history of opera and vocal art in China, Shanghai Opera House continues to play its important role. Since its founding in the 1950s, the creation and performance of famous works in the various repertoires of opera, dance drama, musical theater, chorus, dance, and many different kinds of vocal and music instrumental programs, have made Shanghai Opera one of the best known and most influential performing groups in China.

The original repertoire commissioned and created by Shanghai Opera House includes following operas: King of Chu, Thunderstorm, The Wager, The Predestined Love for Half A Lifetime; national dance drama: Dagger Society, Going up to the moon, Phoenix in the Qi Mountain, Hua Mulan, Story of Wuyue, etc., and hundreds of other smaller musical pieces in addition to these works.

Shanghai Opera House is also celebrated as the place for showing Chinese and foreign classical operas. For example, Chinese operas such as Story of A White-hair Girl, Sister Jiang, Wild Land; foreign operas such as Madama Butterfly, La Boheme, Tosca, Turandot, Eugene Onegin, Romeo et Juliette, Die Fledermaus, Carmen, Aida, Faust,Otello; as well as cantatas like The Yellow River, Long March, Messiah, Requiem, Stabat Mater, Carmina Burana, Song of the Forest and Beethoven's Symphony No. 9. All these reserved repertoires have been drawing a large and appreciative audience every year.

Besides these, Shanghai Opera House has established professional working relationships with foreign orchestras and opera companies such as Royal Court Theatre in Britain, Teatro dell'Opera in Roma, Teatro dell'Opera in Florence, Paris Opera Comique, Opera Center of San Francisco, Ludwigsburg Festival, etc.

Located in Shanghai, the economic, financial and shipping center of China and its most cosmopolitan and international city, Shanghai Opera House is regularly involved in promoting communication in depth between China and foreign countries. Together with the City of Shanghai, the S.O.H is attracting more and more of the world's focus and attention.

The present President and Artistic Director of S.O.H is Mr. Zhang Guoyong, with its deputy vice-president Mr. Lin Hongming.