Life of a domestic helper dramatised in chamber opera for Asia Society by Hong Kong playwright
Asia Society Hong Kong is staging Mila, written by Candace Chong with music by Eli Marshall. They talk about the work’s story of a domestic helper’s struggle to be accepted by a cold and unfriendly family
When playwright and librettist Candace Chong Mui-ngam was approached by Alice Mong, executive director of the Asia Society Hong Kong, to write a chamber opera, she jumped at the chance.
“Most of the time I write subtle dramas about daily life. But a libretto can be more dramatic,” she says. “The freedom in writing opera is very different; you have to use fewer words than a play but be more dramatic with the text. That is what attracted me.”
Called Mila, the work Chong created centres on a domestic helper of that name who works for a Hong Kong family. The drama arises from the relationships and tensions between the characters.
New wave of Cambodian domestic helpers ‘know risks’ that come with working in Hong Kong
The production was commissioned to mark the fifth anniversary this year of the opening of the society’s centre in Hong Kong’s Admiralty neighbourhood. Performances will be staged from January 18 to 21 at its Jockey Club Hall. A chamber opera is typically in one act 40 to 90 minutes long, and is performed by no more than 15 musicians. Chong’s work clocks in at 60 minutes.
Mong’s brief to Chong, delivered four years ago, was to celebrate Asia and Hong Kong’s role in it, as well as the city’s ethnic diversity. At first Mong had hoped the opera could revolve around the origin of the centre – formerly an explosives magazine compound of the British military dating to the mid-19th century.
Chong tried to accommodate Mong’s wish, but didn’t like her first draft, and instead came up with various other story ideas that appealed to her. Ultimately, she says, Mila was chosen because it focuses on a meaningful social issue in Hong Kong. Mong was on board, as was Asia Society co-chair Ronnie Chan Chichung,
