Leaders of elite opera houses from around the world are in China for the most exclusive festival of its kind in the nation's history.

The 2009 Opera Festival’s “World theatre summit and opera forum” attracted leaders from 12 world-famous Opera Houses and Art Organizations, including Sydney Opera House, British Royal Opera House and Opera Europa.

During the two-day forum, starting on May 22, the international opera heavy-weights gave numerous speeches on the future development of opera.

The summit, hosted by the National Center for the Performing Arts, was crowned with great success by the final endorsement of a memorandum, which called for mutual development and wider collaboration among the opera community.

It was the most elite summit of its kind in the nation's history with far-reaching influence over the opera community.

Deng Yijiang：

This is the first time, not only for NCPA,but also for China, to host such a high-level Opera Summit since the founding of the PRC. Our final aim is to promote opera, particularly the Chinese opera to have a smooth development in China.

The 2009 Opera Festival, from April 15 to July 2, will stage 13 foreign and four Chinese opera performances.