According to Magdalene Minnaar, artistic director of the Cape Town Opera, "Cape Town Opera's superpower is that our chorus is almost like a chorus of soloists. And we have these phenomenal voices in South Africa. I am hoping that the Chinese audience will be amazed by the singing of our people from South Africa."

She went on to say that Shanghai Symphony Orchestra is an absolutely world-class orchestra, adding "it is fantastic to see how they are handling this music that is very much, I think, outside of the natural habitat. It feels that Gershwin is on the other side of the continent and they play it so beautifully with so much emotion and it is absolutely exquisite to listen to this beautiful acoustic."