The Beijing Music Festival will initiate a three-year opera co-production program starting in 2020 with the prestigious French dramatic and musical institution Opera Comique, according to a joint announcement.

Carmen, the masterpiece of French composer Georges Bizet, will be the first co-produced opera rolling out from the program, which is scheduled to debut in Paris on Sept 25, 2020 and will be staged during the 23rd Beijing Music Festival next October.

In 2022, the two parties will jointly present a new version of the opera Madame White Snake, adapted from a traditional Chinese folktale, during the annual festival, which will mark the return of the classic opera to Beijing with music by Pulitzer award winner Zhou Long. The opera was last performed in the city in 2010.

The cooperation program will facilitate cultural dialogue and mutual understanding between China and France, said Chinese conductor Yu Long, also the chairman of the festival's art committee.

Yu said he believes the program will be of great value and significance to the two parties as well as audiences in the two countries.

Zheng Shuang, art director of the festival, told China Youth Daily that training in opera production will also be covered in the program.

The two parties highly dovetail in art values and philosophies, so they both expect to conduct pioneering, comprehensive and in-depth cooperation in co-production and people exchanges in a bid to enable a wider base of opera enthusiasts and spur the growth of young artists, she said.

First held in 1998, the 2019 Beijing Music Festival is the 22nd of its kind.

This year, which marks 55th anniversary of China's diplomatic relationship with France, came with more news of bilateral cooperation in art circles.

French musical The Little Match-Seller, adapted from an identically-named fairy tale by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen, will start a China tour on Dec 1.

Produced by Double D productions, the musical recreated the role of a match-selling girl who opens a door that leads her on a series of fantasy adventures where she meets pirates and an astrologer by lighting a single match and finally saves her grandma.

Actors of the original version including singer Gaelle Gauthier will perform in China, and they plan to tour 14 cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Xiamen and Shenzhen until Jan 15. The French production won a nomination for the Moliere Awards in 2016 and has been performed more than 200 times in France since its premiere in 2015.