The 39th Hong Kong Arts Festival is probably the most ambitious to date. It is certainly the longest, being spread over an appropriate but coincidental 39 days. Running from February 17 to March 27, the arts festival will be staged in 15 different venues and will feature more than 200 performances and related events, involving 38 ensembles or solo artists from overseas, and 16 from Hong Kong. There will occasionally be as many as 18 performances taking place on the same day.
'Because there have been extra resources and we have some extra days, we have been able to do the things we have always done, but a little bit more so,' the festival's executive director, Tisa Ho, says.
'The best known artists are remarkably important, we've been able to invest more in new work and to stretch that side of things. We don't have just one keyboard performance but three, and we've got a harpsichord and a pipe organ as well as piano. For voices we've got Ute Lemper, Marianne Faithfull, Angelika Kirchschlager and Cecilia Bartoli.
'It has range, and to me that's the Hong Kong Arts Festival. It's genuinely eclectic. Where else in one festival in one city do you get that kind of diversity?'
The festival also has balance, with an equally strong emphasis on music, dance, theatre and opera. Highlights include the Hong Kong debuts of Bartoli, the New York City Ballet, the Berliner Ensemble, Faithfull and Elvis Costello.
The latter two artists are something of a departure from the festival's traditional style, and one for which Ho makes no apology.
