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Giuseppe Verdi's opera classic "Macbeth" will open the much-anticipated 12th Beijing Music Festival (BMF) this evening. One of the largest-scale annual cultural events in the capital, the festival features 21 classical music performances and presents a range of lectures and free concerts to promote classical music in the city.

BMF began in 1998 and is endorsed by the Ministry of Culture and the Beijing Municipal Government. Held annually in October, when Beijing is enjoying its well-loved autumn season, the festival has become one of the city's most significant and creative cultural events, presenting operas, symphonic and chamber music concerts, musicals and jazz performances.

The festival has introduced many classic performances to a keen audience, including the Chinese premiere of Gustav Mahle's Symphony of a Thousand in 2002 and Richard Wagner's complete Der Ring des Nibelungen in 2005.

This year's festival will also thrill music lovers, according to Yu Long, founder and president of BMF Art Foundation. Tonight's performance of Verdi's "Macbeth" is also a Chinese premiere. The opera has appeared in the repertories of opera houses worldwide including Washington National Opera and San Francisco Opera.

Based on Shakespeare's "Macbeth," this evening's performance from the Savonlinna Opera Festival, is a four-act work by Giuseppe Verdi with an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It tells the story of how a former heroic soldier Macbeth becomes a tyrant under the influence of his wife and a group of witches.

The Savonlinna Opera Festival in Finland is an internationally recognized month-long annual festival. The event attracts around 60,000 people each year, an estimated quarter of whom come from abroad. The festival produced a new interpretation of Verdi's "Macbeth" in 1993, with redesigned sets and costumes and a unique operatic approach.

"We try to present a modern version of the ancient tragedy," explained stage director Ralf Lanbacka. He said that Savonlinna Opera Festival's version of "Macbeth" has mainly been adapted from the Paris premiere in 1865, only without the ballet that Verdi specifically designed to cater to the taste of the French audience.