Taiwan inaugurates its national performing arts center with Les Arts' production of "Das Rheingold".

Taiwan has inaugurated its national performing arts center, National Taichung Theater (NTT), with two performances of the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía production of Wagner's 'Das Rheingold'.

The La Fura dels Baus production for Les Arts, produced in co-production with the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, marked the start of the theater's regular programming, with a capacity for 2,014 spectators, and was attended by Taiwanese Vice President Che Chien-jen.

Designed by Japanese architect Toyo Ito, winner of the Pritzker Prize in 2013, the NTT will host performances of each of the titles that make up "The Ring of the Nibelung" until 2019. The Asian island thus becomes the fifth stop for the most awarded production in the history of Les Arts, which has been seen in Valencia, Florence, Seville and recently in Houston.

The high-definition recording of the 'Tetralogy' during its performances in Valencia, and its subsequent release on DVD and Blu-ray under the C Major label, has brought the production and the Palau de les Arts to the attention of audiences throughout the rest of Europe, the United States, and Japan. This exposure has been further enhanced by the film's screenings in cinemas in Australia, the United States, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, as well as its subsequent broadcast on the German-language channels ZDF, 3Sat, and ÖRF, and the British channel Sky Arts.

To mark the opening of the new theater, the NTT has also programmed a series of lectures and meetings on the integration and interaction of cultural centers with their surroundings. The seminar, organized by the theater's artistic director, Victoria Wang, featured local experts as well as managers of European theaters and festivals, including the Intendant of Les Arts, Davide Livermore.