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Oliver Chou

McDull: Me & My Mum
Hong Kong Sinfonietta
City Hall Concert Hall
August 19
The strains of Hong Kong's leading orchestra accompanied its favourite animated piglet to the stage in a show that paired the city's top musical talent with one of its most popular cartoon characters: McDull the pig.
The adaptation of last year's film, McDull: Me and My Mom, finds McDull all grown up and working as a detective. It stars dancer and choreographer Yuri Ng, portraying the pig live on stage and telling the film's story through 12 famous classical works performed by the Sinfonietta under the baton of music director Yip Wing-sie.
Ng was accompanied onstage not only by a cast of young dancers from the group Dance Fantasy, but by a screen showing animated images.
After a biting opening of Aram Khachaturian's Sabre Dance, which depicts the detective rounding up six little bad guys, Ng and the Sinfonietta begin to transport the audience back in time, to the piglet days, with the remark, "I owe it all to my mum".
The lyrical rhythm in Antonin Dvorak's Slavonic Dances in A-Flat evokes the countryside of McDull's younger days with his mother, and the heart-warming Humoresque accompanies the pair as they spend pastoral time together.
In the scene where McDull's uncle, a noodle vendor, takes care of the piglet while his mum is hospitalised, the flute solo in the intermezzo from Georges Bizet's Carmen provides an atmospheric touch.
After unsuccessfully trying to help his mother win the Mark Six as she works at a television station, both embrace and cry, along with some in the audience, thanks partly to the surging strings in Dvorak's Songs My Mother Taught Me.
With Vittoro Monti's gypsy-inspired Csardas, McDull is shown entering adulthood to become a seaman. The frenzied strings, led by concertmaster James Cuddeford, superbly portray the choppy waters and the beers in the pub - as does Ng, dancing in style.
The jovial cheers of McDull's early adulthood are put to a halt by a phone call informing him of his mother's death. With that comes Giacomo Puccini's O Mio Babbino Caro, an effectively heartbreaking melody.
Devastated, a bearded McDull reflects on his childhood times with his mother, and recalls her hopes that he would pursue higher education.
He does so, and while researching a case attracts the attention of some forensic experts, launching his career as a detective.
In the finale, Ng and the six young dancers - each in different outfits McDull has worn throughout the show - perform Dmitri Shostakovich's Suite for Variety Orchestra: Waltz II.
Following the main performance, Ng offers a tearful encore with the Irish folk song Down by the Salley Gardens, with Chinese lyrics by Brian Tse, author of the comic that first introduced McDull to the world.
 


Cartoon piglet McDull's sad story about mum tugs at heartstrings in Hong Kong Sinfonietta show

McDull the pig on stage with the Sinfonietta.Photo: SCMP Pictures

News

Hong Kong

Education

City's leading orchestra joins the star cartoon figure in multimedia stage show to convey mother-child story


The strains of Hong Kong's leading orchestra accompanied its favourite animated piglet to the stage in a show that paired the city's top musical talent with one of its most popular cartoon characters: McDull the pig.


Cartoon piglet McDull's sad story about mum tugs at heartstrings in Hong Kong Sinfonietta show

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}City's leading orchestra joins the star cartoon figure in multimedia stage show to convey mother-child story

City's leading orchestra joins the star cartoon figure in multimedia stage show to convey mother-child story