Opera scenes [Photo provided to China Daily]

Immersive theatre brings the actors and the audience into close proximity and is usually staged in non-traditional venues where it is easier to break down the barriers between the stage and the auditorium, Ife said.

"I was talking to Emilie Wang at the Shanghai Grand and suggested that we could go one better and show some 'immersive' opera in China. She is a great opera fan and the Shanghai Grand is a major producer of opera, so it made sense to see if we could take one of our Opera Scenes projects and show them there," he said.

Ife said that The Guildhall School is making a major contribution to an Anglo-Chinese arts and education forum to be held in Shanghai in October to coincide with the Shanghai International performing arts festival.

"At that Forum we plan to announce further collaborations with Chinese institutions in the field of opera, drama and actor training. We also are planning a number of residencies in which practitioners can learn about how the arts are developed and managed in each of our two countries," Ife said.

"The year of China-UK cultural exchange is an excellent opportunity to improve mutual understanding of each nation's artistic and performing traditions, and to find ways of developing those art forms for new audiences in the 21st century," Ife said.

The Opera Scenes performance forms part of a continuing development of the Guildhall School's cultural relations with China. The School is expected to subsequently receive a reciprocal visit from Chinese opera artists as well as other arts practitioners of the Shanghai Grand Theatre Arts Group in support of an Anglo-Chinese professional development program.

The School is also involved in other collaborations in China during 2015. Following a successful UK-China arts and education forum in 2009 in London, the School will be coordinating a follow-up forum at the China Shanghai International Arts Festival in October this year with the support of the Chinese Ministry of Culture, the British Council and leading UK arts institutions.