Sitting at Beijing Capital Airport it seems a bit like madness to have come here for only three days. However, it was a beneficial and exciting trip, perfectly organized by our Chinese hosts.

On Monday morning, before the official start of the Forum (and before the summer heat got unbearable), I managed to do a short visit of the Forbidden City and alone this would have been worth the trip. On a quick traversal from the south to the north - which takes about 2 hours - it is impressive to see how the scale and grandeur of the official palaces morph into more intimate, but still splendid, living quarters with smaller palaces, pavilions and gardens, all buildings in the omnipresent imperial red with elaborately decorated roofs.

The Forum was held at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) which was opened just three years ago. Imagine a gigantic dome of steel and glass with three independent buildings inside, a concert hall, an opera house and a theatre, plus a multifunctional space on a lower level, with a total capacity of 6.000 seats, a whole arts district under one single roof. A very impressive achievement whose acoustics and technical equipment match the best performance venues in the world, as we could experience on Monday night, when we attended the world premiere of a Western-style Chinese opera The Chinese Orphan.

I hadn't been aware that all the sessions of the Forum would be open to the public, which provided a great opportunity for inspiring discussions and unique insights. Even though of Western-European origin, opera emerged from these sessions as a truly universal art form, able to engage people of the most diverse cultural backgrounds. Indeed, looking at the fairly short, but incredibly successful history of opera in the world's most populated country one can only imagine what an important destination for opera China could become, and how it will shape the future of the art form. It could be very beneficial for a company like the COC to establish partnerships with the NCPA, reaching from the exchange of productions to co-productions or even tours. We're at the beginning of an interesting journey.

I'm at Pearson Airport again, this time for my first trip to China. The National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) in Beijing has invited me for their World Theatre Forum, a gathering of 19 organizations from 10 countries from all over the world. It will be a long short trip, a 13-hour flight and a distance of over 10,000km for a conference of three days. From Monday to Wednesday we will discuss Management and Development of Today's Opera.

The past ten days since I returned from Europe have been busy. Luminato, our annual ten-day celebration of arts and culture, took over the city with force. As always, I've had too many things to do to really indulge in the Festival, but at least I got to see the National Ballet's stunning production of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and the Mixed Program with choreographies by Georges Balanchine, Jerome Robbins and Twyla Tharp (watch out for her Come Fly Away at the Four Seasons Centre this summer), Necessary Angel's Andromache and Akram Khan's Confluence.

Talking about the Four Seasons Centre, I realize that I should have dedicated a blog entry to its fifth anniversary last week. I've been a lazy blogger lately. In any case, I couldn't praise our wonderful, perfect opera house enough and again and again. Because of it we've become a different company, being able to reach out to artists and realize projects that would have been unreachable and unrealizable before. Getting it built was an incredible achievement for our community and putting art on its stage that matches the high standards set by the house remains our ultimate goal. Productions like our Orfeo this past spring and, indeed, the National Ballet's Alice have set new standards for what you should expect on our stage. I'm really looking forward to our upcoming 11/12 season with more productions of the same calibre.

It was good to be back in Paris for a couple of days. In fact, I hadn't spent a lot of time here since our departure to Canada almost three years ago. My last visit was in March 2010, when I stopped for just one night on one of my European whirlwind trips to see Rheingold, the first installment in the first ever production of Wagner's Ring Cycle at the Opéra Bastille. I didn't manage to come and see either Walküre or Siegfried, but happy to make it for the second performance of Götterdämmerung yesterday evening. Since Götterdämmerung is my favourite part of the Ring Cycle anyway that was just fine and there's really nothing like hearing it live in a big theatre like the Bastille. Recordings never quite convey the impact Wagner's music (or in fact any music) can have. The Immolation Scene really works its cathartic magic when you're envelopped by the sound of a great orchestra and feel the impact of brass and percussion in your stomach.

One of the great things about working for the Paris Opera was that we weren't just an opera company, but also a ballet company. Since the ballet was part of the family (so to speak) and I also had to hire the conductors and singers (if requires) for the ballet productions I got to see at least some performances per season. During my short visit the ballet was performing a production at the Palais Garnier, Rain by the Belgian choreographer Anne Teresa de Keersmaker to music by Steve Reich (which was performed live in the pit). Once in a while Brigitte Lefèvre, the Director of Ballet, programs a production to display the talents of the younger member of the company and this was a perfect showcase for them.

Now I'm at the airport waiting for my flight to Board. I will be back in Toronto this afternoon.