Advertisement
Advertisement
-
TOPIC

Hong Kong Arts Festival

Related Topics:
Hong Kong Arts Festival
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.
Sir John Eliot Gardiner and his Constellation Choir and Orchestra performed two Mozart works at the Hong Kong Arts Festival on March 6. This was the Hong Kong debut of Gardiner’s new ensemble, founded in 2024. Photo: Hong Kong Arts Festival
Performing arts in Hong Kong

Review | Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s CCO plays sumptuous Mozart at Hong Kong Arts Festival

The Hong Kong debut of Gardiner’s Constellation Choir and Orchestra was impressive in its attention to detail and colourful musicality.

Performing arts in Hong Kong

Review | Stunning beauty and power in Hong Kong performance of Caravaggio

On Our Radar

The Hong Kong Arts Festival is back. These are the shows to book first

Performing arts in Hong Kong

Review | Chaotic, electrifying: Sebastian Kaiser’s The Drunkard is fiercely alive

Cross-cultural and gender-blind, Sebastian Kaiser’s stage adaptation of Liu Yichang’s 1962 novel stays true to its rebellious spirit.

Sze Wei in The Drunkard at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre’s Studio Theatre. The stage adaptation of Liu Yichang’s 1962 novel is directed by Sebastian Kaiser for the 2026 Hong Kong Arts Festival. Photo: Eric Hong
Performing arts in Hong Kong

Review | She seduced some of the most powerful men. A ballet tries to tell her story

Despite some excellent dancing, Ballet Nacional de España’s La Bella Otero fails to do justice to the notorious Belle Époque star’s story.

Books and literature

War zones, jingles and litter picking – the HKILF’s literary legend visits

Weird and wonderful real-life tales of authors who have appeared at the Hong Kong International Literary Festival, from Margaret Atwood to Salman Rushdie.

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Performing arts in Hong Kong

‘Unconventional bodies’: inclusive dance team’s upcoming Hong Kong show

Unusual Symptoms’ experimental dance project Harmonia challenges audience biases about the human body.

Harmonia, performed by the inclusive dance theatre group Unusual Symptoms, stars performers with congenital limb differences, dwarfism and wheelchair needs – and challenges audience biases about the human body. Photo: Unusual Symptoms
Performing arts in Hong Kong

Hong Kong concert where audience can walk around and see musicians up close

Neither audience members nor performers will be confined to their seats at the concert from the inclusive music ensemble Paraorchestra.

Performing arts in Hong Kong

How a non-Chinese-speaking director reimagined major Hong Kong literary work

‘Naivety brews creativity’ for German director Sebastian Kaiser, who has adapted Liu Yichang’s The Drunkard for the Hong Kong Arts Festival.

Icons and Influencers

Q&A | High barre: a chat with dancer Roberto Bolle ahead of Caravaggio in Hong Kong

Bolle discusses how dance became his life as he prepares to bring Caravaggio to the Hong Kong Arts Festival in March.

Roberto Bolle in Dolce & Gabbana. Photography: Federico Barbieri and Alba Quinones
Performing arts in Hong Kong

What to expect at Hong Kong Arts Festival 2026, from Mozart to Caravaggio

Festival highlights include a mixed-reality Ryuichi Sakamoto show, a concert led by John Eliot Gardiner and a ballet starring Roberto Bolle.

The 54th Hong Kong Arts Festival will open with Ballet Nacional de España’s La Bella Otero, a retelling of 19th-century Spanish artist Carolina Otero’s life story. Photo: HKAF
Art

Opinion | Hong Kong Arts Development Awards too provincial and inward-looking

An excellent ceremony aside, the HKADA don’t do enough to promote winners outside Hong Kong or help them network, John Batten says.

Performing arts in Hong Kong

Review | Visually stunning Bizet’s Carmen in Hong Kong recreates original staging

The Hong Kong Arts Festival’s presentation of the famous opera gives a fascinating sense of what audiences experienced 150 years ago.

Performing arts in Hong Kong

Review | Rudolf Nureyev gala tribute in Hong Kong full of high points

Mariinsky Ballet’s Maria Khoreva shows why she is making waves, hometown hero Lam Chun-wing earns acclaim in tribute to a legend of dance.

Maria Khoreva and Jacopo Tissi in the Act III pas de deux from La Bayadère, part of Nureyev & Friends – A Ballet Gala Tribute, a programme of the 53rd Hong Kong Arts Festival. Photo: Tony Luk, courtesy of the Hong Kong Arts Festival
Performing arts in Hong Kong

Beethoven meets space battles in ‘first manga opera’, coming to Hong Kong

Conductor Laurence Equilbey and her Insula Orchestra will perform Beethoven Wars: A Battle for Peace at the Hong Kong Arts Festival in March.

A scene from Beethoven Wars: A Battle for Peace. Described as the first “manga opera”, it will be performed by the Insula Orchestra and Accentus chamber choir from March 26-28, 2025 as part of the 53rd Hong Kong Arts Festival. Photo: HKAF
Performing arts in Hong Kong

Review | Refined Mozart, inspired Bach from Andras Schiff and his ensemble

Schiff and the Cappella Andrea Barca’s playing of Mozart exuded grace and refinement, and they were on point in Bach’s keyboard concertos.

Performing arts in Hong Kong

Review | Czech National Ballet’s La Sylphide marked by fast, crisp footwork

Hong Kong Arts Festival programme was performed beautifully by the Czech National Ballet. It’s just a pity there was no live music.

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Performing arts in Hong Kong

Review | Buoyant Beethoven from Kolesnikov and Hong Kong Sinfonietta

Soloist finds musical insights in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 4, while orchestra shows its growth in Schumann’s ‘Rhenish’ Symphony.

Pavel Kolesnikov performs Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 4 with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta at Hong Kong City Hall on February 22, 2025. The concert was part of the 53rd Hong Kong Arts Festival. Photo: HK Sinfonietta
Hong Kong economy

Exclusive | Russian art and Bolshoi in Hong Kong? Envoy says top museums ‘ready to share’

Envoy Anatoly Kargapolov says Moscow hopes to strengthen collaboration with Hong Kong in the arts, tourism and education.

Performing arts in Hong Kong

Review | Japanese drummer steals the show in concert with Hong Kong Sinfonietta

Senri Kawaguchi’s inspired drumming brings alive Hong Kong composer Ng Cheuk-yin’s Fly LIVE! and new work An Array of Stars in a fusion concert with Hong Kong orchestra.

Performing arts in Hong Kong

Review | Shanghai Ballet’s A Sigh of Love looked great but never came to life

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.

A scene from Shanghai Ballet’s A Sigh of Love. The story of extramarital love in 1930s Shanghai proved too thin to support a full length ballet, even if the the production was visually striking. Photo: courtesy of HKAF
Performing arts in Hong Kong

Review | Robert Lepage uses puppets to tell story of teenage trauma in 1970s Quebec

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.

Olivier Normand, the only actor in Robert Lepage’s Courville, with the puppet of protagonist Simon’s alcoholic uncle. The play made deft use ofJapanese-style bunraku puppetry to tell an intense story of teenage trauma in 1970s Quebec. Photo: courtesy of Hong Kong Arts Festival
Performing arts in Hong Kong

Review | Feast of string playing from Concerto Italiano, Festival Strings Lucerne

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.

Performing arts in Hong Kong

Review | Heavy metal meets orchestral sound in Bright & Black, with mixed results

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.

videocam
Performing arts in Hong Kong

Review | Le Corsaire by La Scala ballet: well danced in places, but uneven

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.

Nicoletta Manni as Medora in La Scala Theatre Ballet’s performance of Le Corsaire as part of the 2024 Hong Kong Arts Festival. Photo: Tony Luk
Performing arts in Hong Kong

Review | Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe’s Peony Pavilion not ‘complete’ as advertised

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.

A scene from part two of Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe’s The Peony Pavilion (Complete Version) at the 2024 Hong Kong Arts Festival. Photo: Annie Chow Ka-yee
Performing arts in Hong Kong

Review | Multimedia choral concert rips musical works from their church settings

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.

Art

Review | Van Gogh and Klimt artworks get torn apart to music in vibrant choral show

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.

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Help preserve 120 years of quality journalism.
SUPPORT NOW
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement