Performing arts is like chemistry. When the right components mix, the results can be explosive.
That might just be the right description for Alter Ego, a performance by Broadway legend and grande dame of opera, Julia Migenes, scheduled for this year's Hong Kong Arts Festival.
In the show, Migenes will break away from the musical styles that she is known for and reinterpret some of her favourite music, including songs by Brazilian greats Antonio Carlos Jobim and Caetano Veloso, Sting, Annie Lennox and Miles Davis.
French pianist Edouard Ferlet will team up with two other brilliant musicians, Alain Grange and Xavier Desandre-Navarre, to form a band trio to accompany Migenes. He is also the musical director of the show.
'This show is more about different pictures. All the songs are different pictures. What I try to do is accompany Julia in an emotional way,' he said. 'She and I see the music the same way. For us, the most important thing about music is the emotion.'
And with a 'compact' ensemble, Ferlet said, they were able to keep the feel of the show intimate and improvise at will.
