The month-long Shanghai International Arts Festival is about to draw an end.

The arts feast, as a bridge connecting the world with China, provides elite artists across the globe a chance to introduce themselves to one of the world's largest art markets, and for Chinese audiences, it's a chance to appreciate world-class music, dance, and drama.

Last week, the Swedish National Symphony Orchestra, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra (Göteborgs Symfoniker), showed its will to become one of the world's top orchestras in a piano quartet concert; Modern dance legend Akram Khan ended his career as a dancer with final solo "Xenos," attracting his fans across Asia to see the anti-war performance; Experimental dramatist Robert Wilson brought Gothic horror "The Sandman" to give audiences a fairytale-like visual experience.

This week will see a list of premier ballet dance, drama, and music drama closing the festival.

If you are still immersed in the beautiful dances brought by the legendary New York City Ballet at the beginning of the festival and want to see more, you should not miss Cuban National Ballet. 

Established in 1948, the Cuban National Ballet is one of the most prestigious classical dance companies in the world and an important part of the international dance community. 

Its founder and director Alicia Alonso, about to turn 98, was recognized by her nation as one of the most outstanding people in Cuban, world dance and classical ballet history. The female Cuban dancer, along with cane sugar and cigars, are known as the three symbols of Cuba.

Alicia Alonso and the Cuban National Ballet have built a relationship with China for more than half a century. Top Chinese leaders Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai met them when the troupe performed in China in the 1960s. 

And Chinese President Xi Jinping watched a Cuban National Ballet performance when he visited Cuba in 2014. 

The Cuban staging of “Don Quixote” debuted at Havana's Grand Theater on July 6, 1988. Adapted from the same-name novel by writer Miguel de Cervantes, Alonso choreographed the ballet with her special focus on folk references while preserving the essence of the novel.

The performance will be staged on November 22 and 23 in Shanghai. At the 60th anniversary of the troupe's establishment, let's see how Cuban ballet interprets the one of the great literary works.

Drama “The Teahouse” written by Lao She, one of the most celebrated figures of 20th-century Chinese literature, debuted at the Beijing People's Art Theater in 1958. 

Gaining great success since its premiere, it has been performed in Europe, North America, and other countries and regions in Asia, and was honored by a German paper as “a wonder from the oriental stage.”

For the past 60 years, it has always been part of the repertoire at the Beijing People's Art Theater, and no other group dares to challenge its authority, until last year.

The year 2017 saw the 110th birthday of Chinese drama. To pay tribute to one of the most classic dramas since the founding of the People's Republic of China, director Li Liuyi joined hands with Sichuan People's Art Theatre and introduced the new version of “The Teahouse” performed in a Sichuan dialect.

In addition to the difference in language, the story background was changed from Beijing to the southern city of Chengdu in Sichuan Province, where teahouse culture has been rooted in the regional culture and still flourishes today. 

The new drama also absorbs Sichuan local traditional talking-singing arts “Jinqianban,” a national intangible cultural heritage, to give the audience a refreshing experience to the old play from November 20 to 22.

“La Traviata”, an opera by prominent Italian opera composers Giuseppe Verdi, has been a favorite in opera history.

Director Benjamin Lazar has brought the 19th-century classic opera to a modern drama stage, mixing the opera and drama, and with both modern and classic elements.

The newly-adapted music drama, showcased by Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, is composed of 13 actors. Its simplicity lets the audience focus more on the inner world of the heroine, Violetta Valery, and be moved by the fallen woman's elegance and sincerity while denouncing the bias and hypocrisy of capitalist society.

The show will be presented from November 22 to 25.