DAZZLING DUET: Placido Domingo and Song Zuying in perfect harmony (CFP)

It was a blue-sky summer day in Beijing. In the afternoon sun the metallic twists of the iconic National Stadium of China, also known as the Bird's Nest, sent slivers of silver light in all directions. On the ground crowds surged toward the entry points, hounded by swarms of ticket scalpers, chirping excitedly. The people came to see a concert by China's famous folk singer Song Zuying later that night.

The stadium, which provided 60,000 seats for the concert, was 90 percent full. Besides Song, there were clearly other attractions on the bill. Chinese pop king Jay Chou, Spanish tenor Placido Domingo and young piano prodigy Lang Lang all drew their own fans.

The crossover between classical, pop and Chinese folk music was the essential feature of the concert, according to Xu Peidong, Vice President of the Chinese Musicians Association.

When East met West and pop met classical in the Bird's Nest, the concert attracted a cross section of old and young, local residents and tourists.

All stars

After a short dance performance, Song started the concert with a vocal solo of Jasmine Flowers, the symbol of Chinese folk songs to well-recognized Western audiences. Nicknamed "Jasmine of the People," the consummate singer has performed the song on various occasions, including her solo concerts in the Golden Hall of Vienna in 2003 and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. in 2006.

To the audience's surprise, Song performed a hip-hop version of her signature piece, Spice Girls, with a U.S. band.

Willy Strauss, the great grandson of waltz king Johann Strauss, enjoyed the song. "It is a fresh experience for Europeans to listen to her music, because she perfectly combines Chinese folk songs with Western music," he said during Song's trip to Vienna in 2003.

Song then sang several duets with Chou, reaching a climax with Chou's hit Thousands of Miles Apart.

"It's more than a communication between two different styles of singing," Yang Yaopeng, a retiree of a machinery manufacturing company, told Beijing Review.

When Placido Domingo took the stage he sang Kangding Love Song, a folk song originating in Kangding, southwest China's Sichuan Province, with Song. Young pianist Lang Lang accompanied the pair on piano. The Spanish tenor sang it in Chinese, but that didn't stop him from wringing every ounce of feeling from the song.

The concert marked Song and Domingo's Bird's Nest reunion after the two collaborated in the Beijing Olympic closing ceremony theme song, Flame of Love, last summer.

During the song, stuntmen dressed in flame-like costumes were seen flying down from the top of the gilded palace-like stage, reminding audiences of the Olympic spectacle in 2008.

Dwayne L. Melrose, Vice President of Exploration with the Beijing office of Vancouver-based Minco Mining Group, said the crossover was "very interesting."