Hong Kong Arts Festival announces 2007 programme

A feast of international performances will be on offer including dance, theatre, circus, opera and contemporary music. Taking to the stage this year from Britain will be the Welsh National Opera performing La bohème, and Watermill Theatre’s Propellers from England will be showcasing all-male versions of Taming of the Shrew and Twelfth Night, under director Edward Hall.

Topping the bill alongside these acts will be a Michael Gene Sullivan adaptation of George Orwell’s novel 1984 directed by Oscar winning actor, director and writer Tim Robbins, and performed by the Actors’ Gang. Chinese mezzo-soprano Yang Guang, winner of the BBC Singer of the World Competition, will also be entertaining visitors, as well as Youssou N’Dour with his Super Étoile de Dakar from Senegal.

Theatre productions this year feature puppetry, circus and musicals from China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Belgium, America and the UK. Must-sees include YuYu MiMi – A Love Story, which tells a classical tale of romance through contemporary choreography using beautiful hand carved wooden puppets, and Chinese paper cut shadow puppets. Another highlight is Lost Village, a modern collaboration of Chinese and Japanese theatre revealing hidden stories between the two countries, co-written and co-directed by Oriza Hirata from Tokyo and Li Liuyi from Beijing.

From jazz to classical, western to Chinese opera, and contemporary to choral; musical acts this year come from a host of nations including Africa, Russia, America, Hungary, Italy, Germany, Spain, and of course China and Hong Kong.

Choice performances will be given by Cuban jazz pianist Chucho Valdés and his quartet; the energetic Soweto Gospel Choir singing in traditional African languages and English; and local composer Keith Chan Fai-young’s multi-media performance, 12 Faces of Woman, in which twelve new songs will be performed by an ensemble of singers and musicians, with twelve videos created by film and video artists.

Operas include Stealing the Imperial Horse, a classic Beijing opera reworked in Cantonese; and Jiangsu Province Kunqu Opera’s The Peach Blossom Fan – a love story set against the backdrop of the Ming Dynasty.

Ballet, tango and contemporary are just some of the genres featuring in the dance programme. Prima ballerina Sylvie Guillem appears in Akram Khan’s Sacred Monsters, in which he attempts to unite the spheres of contemporary dance with the 500 year-old Indian classical dance. Also, the Hong Kong Cultural Centre will be turned into a milonga (Argentinean dance club) for a passionate tango performance – Tango Buenos Aires - led by dance luminaries Roberto Herrera and Tamara Bisceglia, and Esteban Moreno and Claudia Codega.

Performances will be held in venues across Hong Kong. These include:
- Grand Theatre, the Concert Hall and the Studio Theatre, Hong Kong Cultural Centre
- Concert Hall and the Theatre, Hong Kong City Hall
- Fringe Studio, Fringe Club
- Auditorium, Kwai Tsing Theatre
- Lyric Theatre and the Drama Theatre, Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts

For further information on the festival and other a host of other exiting things to see and do in Hong Kong - visit discoverhongkong, for detailed listings of performances and for bookings, visit hk.artsfestival.org.