Topic
Hong Kong Arts Festival has been held annually since 1973. The 2020 edition is due to feature more than 120 performances by nearly 1,800 local and international artists. Read interviews and profiles of some of the leading performers, event previews and reviews.
- Fly LIVE! by Hong Kong composer Ng Cheuk-yin came alive through the inspired drumming of Senri Kawaguchi, and Ng on keyboards received a rock-star welcome
- The work, and another by Ng, formed part of a concert in which the orchestra played Copland’s Appalachian Spring with aplomb, and Barber’s Adagio for Strings
A Sigh of Love, performed by Shanghai Ballet at Hong Kong Arts Festival 2024, had impressive sets, costumes and dancing, but the story was too thin and the score incoherent.
Courville, Canadian Robert Lepage’s play centred on an LGBTQ teenager in 1970s Quebec, and performed as part of the 2024 Hong Kong Arts Festival, featured dazzling Japanese bunraku puppetry.
Period instrument ensemble Concerto Italiano showed their mastery of baroque in a set of Vivaldi concertos; the Lucerne Festival Strings, performing with solo violinist Akiko Suwanai, were good in parts.
Hong Kong Arts Festival show with a rock concert vibe features pieces orchestral in scope composed by Nordic metalheads and performed by multinational Baltic Sea Philharmonic.
La Scala Theatre Ballet’s Hong Kong Arts Festival performance of Le Corsaire had its moments, not least a star turn by Nicoletta Manni as Medora, but was marred by odd story choices and some untidy dancing.
The Chinese opera highlight of the Hong Kong Arts Festival, Peony Pavilion (Complete Version), by Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe, was well done, but lacked the depth the title promised.
Garden of Repose at the West Kowloon Cultural District, a multimedia choral concert produced by the Hong Kong Arts Festival, includes works by Brahms, Arvo Pärt, Poulenc and Antonia Lotti.
Performed at the Hong Kong Arts Festival, Van Gogh in Me is a multimedia display of music and visual art by the Netherlands Chamber Choir using works by Debussy, Gustav Mahler, Saint-Saëns and more.
Pianist Minsoo Sohn, teacher of South Korean prodigy Yunchan Lim, is appearing in the 2024 Hong Kong Arts Festival. He talks to the Post about South Korea’s music scene and how he sees performing.
Wilson Ng, former associate conductor of the Seoul Philharmonic, will bring his current orchestra, the Hankyung Arte Philharmonic, from South Korea to the Hong Kong Arts Festival in March.
Highlights of the 2024 festival have been revealed, including ballet from Teatro alla Scala, a full-length The Peony Pavilion, Peter Brook’s last theatre production and Bavarian State Opera doing Richard Strauss.
Natalia Osipova’s dazzling dancing and demonstrations of astounding flexibility lit up her Hong Kong Arts Festival performances, while the fearless male guest dancers also impressed.
Forget the futuristic title “The Stage Door on Mars” given this production – it was very much a tribute to the present-day vibrancy of Cantonese opera and music.
Silent Opera strips operas to their bare bones. In the case of Vixen, this brings narrative clarity to Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen. But the singers still need to deliver some theatre.
Noted collector Henry Tang, the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority chairman, and 3812 Gallery co-founder Calvin Hui point the way for potential patrons
Soprano shows the exceptionally rich tone of her voice but also delicacy and astounding control, in a programme of Russian and other songs, ably accompanied by her husband and pianist Rachel Cheung.
Russian pianist’s distinctive interpretation and devotion to blending the solo part’s lines with the playing of the Hong Kong Sinfonietta marked their performance of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 3.
For one thing, the exclusive hang-out is going street, partnering once more with the HKwalls to bring a splash of colour – and world class artists – to Central and Sheung Wan
From a Coco Chanel-inspired ballet to HKIFF’s Godard retrospective and a Leslie Cheung tribute at the brand new HKT x WestK Popfest music festival
Yat-sen, a musical about modern China’s ‘founding father’ Sun Yat-sen, is an impressive showcase of Hong Kong talent, but is tainted by its chauvinistic interpretation of history.
Superb artistry, depth of interpretation and the sheer joy of the playing from young South Korea-born female musicians and local stand-in violist marked the Esmé Quartet’s concert.
Linking personal fate to environmental crisis, The Book of Water starring Samuel West live and his father, Timothy West, on film is a polished multimedia spectacle.
The vastness of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre challenged the Insula period instrument orchestra, but Chinese pianist Yuan Sheng, playing a period piano, excelled.
Canadian shows dexterous touch, precision and uncanny maturity in two Chopin works, silky skills in Ravel’s impressionistic Miroirs, and mischief and fireworks in a demanding work by Liszt.
The four Korean women of the award-winning Esmé Quartet make their Hong Kong debut this month. First violin Bae Won-hee talks about their tight bond and what they hope to achieve together.
Laurence Equilbey, named by Blanchett’s Lydia Tár in Oscar-nominated film as one of the women who paved her way as a conductor, explains why she founded a period instrument ensemble.
Performances by the Russian soprano and ballerina and the premiere of a musical about Sun Yat-sen are among the highlights of the 2023 festival.
Tisa Ho is to end 16 years as Hong Kong Arts Festival’s executive director, the last three wrecked or severely disrupted by measures to curb the coronavirus pandemic.
