Shanghai International Arts Festival 2026: what’s still on

A new opera house, a city-wide festival

The Grand Opera House’s fan-shaped roof now marks the Pudong waterfront at Expo Culture Park. Snøhetta and ECADI’s building contains three halls, and its opening concert on 17 October doubled as the festival’s opening. The new house hosts several of the biggest visiting companies this autumn, including the Mariinsky, Berlin State Opera and American Ballet Theatre.

The festival also extends to the Oriental Art Center, West Bund Grand Theatre, YOUNG Theatre and Shanghai International Dance Center. The separate Art Space programme brings more than 80 public performances to sites around the city. The festival finishes on 15 November; the Grand Opera House’s opening season continues into February.

The remaining programme at a glance

These selections begin on 25 October, after the first week’s Tosca and Vienna Philharmonic dates. Dates below are in 2026 and times are local to Shanghai. The individual descriptions explain what each company is bringing; official programme links sit with the relevant shows.

25 October: chamber music, Moby Dick and Contre-Nature

At 19:30, the Oriental Art Center has the second evening of the chamber-music festival led by pianist Martha Argerich, violinist Maxim Vengerov and cellist Steven Isserlis. The two-night project ranges across Beethoven, Mahler, Fauré, Piazzolla and Ravel, with the instrumental combinations changing through the programme. The date-specific running order is on the ticket listing.

At 14:30, Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus gives the final Shanghai performance of Robert Wilson’s Moby Dick at West Bund Grand Theatre. Melville’s obsessive Captain Ahab appears through white faces, silhouettes and carefully held stage pictures. Anna Calvi’s music brings folk, sea-shanty and rock elements to the 100-minute staging.

At 14:00, Rachid Ouramdane and Compagnie de Chaillot perform Contre-Nature at Shanghai International Dance Center. Ten dancers and acrobats lift, catch and send bodies through the air. I would put this high on the list for visitors drawn to physical performance: the contact between the performers is the substance of the work.

25–28 October: Shostakovich in Pudong

The Mariinsky Orchestra and Valery Gergiev’s cycle covers all fifteen Shostakovich symphonies over eight concerts at the new Grand Opera House. Five sessions remain after 24 October. It is a substantial anniversary project: 2026 marks 120 years since the composer’s birth. The symphonies encompass swagger, satire, violence and spare late writing; some also bring voices and chorus into the orchestra.

27–28 October: a painted headcloth and Min opera

Fujian Experimental Min Opera Theatre performs 画网巾先生 at the Oriental Art Center at 19:15 on both nights. The story centres on Ming loyalist Feng Sheng, whose painted headcloth becomes an assertion of allegiance during imprisonment. Dai Xianliang wrote the play, Xu Chunlan directs, and Chen Qiong and Lin Yuhui lead the cast.

Min opera is sung in the Fuzhou dialect. English translation is not confirmed for these performances. For Chinese-speaking visitors, this brings a regional vocal and theatrical tradition into a festival otherwise heavy with international names.

30 October–1 November: Aida and Gob Squad

The Mariinsky’s Aida places Verdi’s captive Ethiopian princess and Egyptian commander Radamès in the new opera house’s Red Hall. Gergiev conducts Giancarlo Del Monaco’s production. The performances are 30 and 31 October at 19:00 and 1 November at 14:00. Aida’s public triumphal music and private tragedy give the production its dramatic span.

Across town at YOUNG Theatre, Gob Squad’s Creation (Pictures for Dorian) uses three company performers and six local participants: three in their twenties and three over sixty. Cameras, mirrors and picture frames turn the differences between their bodies into the stage action. Oscar Wilde supplies the reference, while the local participants make this a particular Shanghai encounter. It plays 30 and 31 October at 19:30 and 1 November at 14:00.

7–15 November: Berlin, then Swan Lake

Rudolf Buchbinder and Staatskapelle Berlin bring Beethoven’s five piano concertos to the Grand Opera House on 7 and 9 November at 19:30, directed by the pianist from the keyboard. Christian Thielemann conducts the Berlin State Opera’s Der Rosenkavalier there on 8, 10 and 12 November. André Heller’s production places Strauss’s Viennese comedy and its melancholy love triangle on a very different scale from the intimate chamber evenings.

American Ballet Theatre’s Swan Lake is the festival’s closing production, running 12–15 November at the Grand Opera House. Kevin McKenzie’s staging dates from 2000 and builds on Petipa and Ivanov. Tchaikovsky’s score, the corps of white swans and the contrasting Odette and Odile roles make it the most familiar title in this final stretch of the festival.

Venue addresses

Shanghai Grand Opera House · 上海大歌剧院 — 1 Yongzhan Road, Pudong New Area · 上海市浦东新区咏展路1号. The festival’s opening venue, with three separate halls. Shanghai Grand Theatre at People’s Square is a different building.

Shanghai Oriental Art Center · 上海东方艺术中心 — 425 Dingxiang Road, Pudong New Area · 上海市浦东新区丁香路425号.

Shanghai West Bund Grand Theatre · 上海西岸大剧院 — 2290 Longteng Avenue, Xuhui District · 上海市徐汇区龙腾大道2290号.

Shanghai International Dance Center · 上海国际舞蹈中心 — 1650 Hongqiao Road, Changning District · 上海市长宁区虹桥路1650号.

YOUNG Theatre · YOUNG剧场 — 1155 Kongjiang Road, Yangpu District · 上海市杨浦区控江路1155号.

Tickets and language

The official festival programme pages linked above carry event details and ticket links or WeChat ticket QR codes. The festival box office is +86 21 5265 4033, Monday–Friday, 09:30–17:30. For the new Grand Opera House, the official mini-programme is 上海大歌剧院.

This is the announced programme as of 24 October, rather than live seat availability. Exact hall, cast, intervals, age rules and surtitles follow the selected performance. For spoken theatre and regional opera, English translation needs to be confirmed with the venue before booking.