(FORTUNE Magazine) – As the rest of Asia burned, Beijing swooned to arias: For eight performances in early September, spectators from all over the world flew to China to see Puccini's Turandot in its fictional setting, the Forbidden City. The opera attracted plenty of attention for its $15 million price tag, its topnotch production values, and its star power in the form of diva Sharon Sweet, conductor Zubin Mehta, and director Zhang Yimou. All told, it was a once-in-a-lifetime...networking opportunity.

Sure, there may have been Puccini-heads in the audience. But the real reason people seemed to be there was to schmooze government officials and impress Asian clients on their own turf. Companies like Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Credit Suisse, and Munich Reinsurance all bought blocks of seats for corporate hospitality purposes; those blocks started at $15,000--for ringside views and a sumptuous 12-course "gala dinner" including braised jellyfish and shark fin soup--and ran as high as $100,000. Michael Ecker, executive producer of the extravaganza, had no illusions about the makeup of his crowd: "Fifty percent of the people here have never seen an opera." Then he added, "People understand corporate hospitality. In America you would buy ice hockey tickets for your business friends."

The corporate hospitality reached its crescendo over dinner and throughout two intermissions, during which sponsors plied dignitaries with cocktails. It worked for one media consultant who brought a government player to a performance--and spent the next day getting deeper into discussions with him.

The company that paid the most--and stood the most to gain--was Bertelsmann, the German media giant. Its BMG Classics division paid $3.7 million in production costs in exchange for audio and video rights to the show. While the company's officials admitted that it would not recoup its investment anytime soon, they said the video and CD releases of Turandot could help it tap China's media market. "If you're here early on, you have a good chance to break in," says Bertelsmann executive Konstantin Thoeren. Thoeren sees lots of potential in this market: "I think China is ready to get into movies of the week."

--Michael Kaplan