https://www.scmp.com/rss/324019/feed Hong Kong Arts Festival has been held annually since 1973. The 2020 edition is due to feature more than 120 performances by nearly 1,800 local and international artists. Read interviews and profiles of some of the leading performers, event previews and reviews. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Christopher Halls Christopher Halls You have to admire long-standing ensembles that still retain the spirit and sound that their original founders intended. The acclaimed Academy of St Martin in the Fields (ASMF) began its first Hong Kong Arts Festival (HKAF) concert on Saturday, March 28, fittingly enough, with something quintessentially British: Edward Elgar’s Serenade for String Orchestra. Positioned further back on stage than most groups appearing at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall, the ASMF projected breezy wafts... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3348389/22-year-old-pianist-yunchan-lim-wows-hong-kong-arts-festival?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3348389/22-year-old-pianist-yunchan-lim-wows-hong-kong-arts-festival?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 30 Mar 2026 11:15:07 +0000 Kevin Kwong Kevin Kwong The Fujian Province Liyuan Opera Inheritance Centre production of Red Wedding Bed is based on Chen San and Wu Niang, a love story that originated during the Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279). The production is based on one of the oldest surviving vernacular (Teochew) opera scripts, dating back to the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). Chen San, a scholar from Quanzhou in Fujian province, travels to Chaozhou in Guangdong and meets the beautiful Huang Wu Niang at a Lantern Festival fair, and it is love at... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3347698/brilliant-chinese-opera-troupes-retelling-ancient-love-story-has-surprise-ending?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3347698/brilliant-chinese-opera-troupes-retelling-ancient-love-story-has-surprise-ending?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 24 Mar 2026 11:15:08 +0000 Ken Smith Ken Smith Since its first Hong Kong appearance in 2017 with the Asian premiere of The Makropulos Case, the National Theatre Brno has twice been awarded festival of the year for its Janacek Brno Festival at the International Opera Awards in 2018 and 2025, and best new production for The Excursions of Mr Broucek in 2025. The thread connecting these distinctions is the modernist Leos Janacek (1854-1928), who spent most of his life in Brno, in the Czech Republic, and whose often-bracing music the company... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3347662/hong-kong-performance-tchaikovskys-eugene-onegin-subtle-yet-powerful?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3347662/hong-kong-performance-tchaikovskys-eugene-onegin-subtle-yet-powerful?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 24 Mar 2026 07:15:13 +0000 Christopher Halls Christopher Halls Ending the week with a requiem and a mass may sound like an overload of gravitas. Yet for their Hong Kong Arts Festival (HKAF) concert on March 6, Sir John Eliot Gardiner and his Constellation Choir and Orchestra (CCO) gave Mozart’s two sacred works a buoyancy and transparency that was more uplifting than anything else. This was the Hong Kong debut of Gardiner’s new ensemble, founded in 2024 after an unfortunate incident that led to his departure from the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra, which he... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3346057/sir-john-eliot-gardiners-cco-plays-sumptuous-mozart-hong-kong-arts-festival-concert?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3346057/sir-john-eliot-gardiners-cco-plays-sumptuous-mozart-hong-kong-arts-festival-concert?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 10 Mar 2026 07:15:07 +0000 Natasha Rogai Natasha Rogai Hard on the heels of the opening show La Belle Otero, the Hong Kong Arts Festival brought us another dance work inspired by an artist with a tumultuous life: Caravaggio. This was a work of stunning beauty and power, with Mauro Bigonzetti’s magnificent choreography performed by a cast of outstanding dancers led by the legendary Roberto Bolle. Among the greatest of Italian painters, Caravaggio (1571-1610) was notorious for his dissolute and violent lifestyle. He often found himself in trouble with... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3346050/caravaggio-ballet-performance-hong-kong-work-stunning-beauty-and-power?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3346050/caravaggio-ballet-performance-hong-kong-work-stunning-beauty-and-power?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 10 Mar 2026 04:32:07 +0000 Gavin Yeung Gavin Yeung The kaleidoscopic Art Month has arrived in Hong Kong, with the bulk of the performing arts events taking place under the banner of the 54th Hong Kong Arts Festival. Running until March 30, the non-profit festival features more than 1,100 artists and 170 performances organised under the theme of peace, courage and resilience – a fitting foil for the times we find ourselves in. The 2026 line-up doesn’t shy away from technology. The KAGAMI experience is the most eagerly anticipated headline act,... https://www.scmp.com/postmag/article/3345569/ryuichi-sakamoto-yunchan-lim-and-others-54th-hong-kong-arts-festival?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/postmag/article/3345569/ryuichi-sakamoto-yunchan-lim-and-others-54th-hong-kong-arts-festival?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 06 Mar 2026 08:00:12 +0000 Enid Tsui Enid Tsui Sebastian Kaiser’s stage adaptation of Liu Yichang’s The Drunkard is as chaotic and electrifying as an exhilarating night out. This two-and-a-half-hour commission for the Hong Kong Arts Festival stays true to the 1962 novel’s rebellious spirit while freely adapting the stream-of-consciousness ramblings of a struggling writer drinking himself into oblivion. Among the many liberties taken is the splitting of the unnamed protagonist into two parts, played by actress Sze Wei and actor Yeung... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3345231/sebastian-kaisers-drunkard-adaptation-chaotic-timely-and-fiercely-alive?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3345231/sebastian-kaisers-drunkard-adaptation-chaotic-timely-and-fiercely-alive?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 03 Mar 2026 12:15:07 +0000 Natasha Rogai Natasha Rogai This year’s Hong Kong Arts Festival opened with La Bella Otero, a full-length narrative work from Spain’s leading dance company, Ballet Nacional de España. La Bella Otero offers a lively, entertaining showcase of Spanish dance – always popular in Hong Kong, as the rapturous reception from the audience showed – and Noelia Ruiz did an excellent job of conveying star quality, high energy and sexual allure in the title role. On the downside, choreographer Ruben Olmo and dramaturge Gregor Acuña-Pohl... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3345134/la-bella-otero-led-wild-life-ballet-hong-kong-tries-tell-her-story?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3345134/la-bella-otero-led-wild-life-ballet-hong-kong-tries-tell-her-story?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 02 Mar 2026 11:15:08 +0000 Mark Footer Mark Footer The Hong Kong International Literary Festival is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year (March 1 to 8), marking a quarter of a century of bringing some of the most famous – and in some cases, most quirky – authors to the city. Among those with more than one story to tell have been: Bonnie Tsui: most recent book: On Muscle: The Stuff That Moves Us and Why It Matters (2025) It was perhaps inevitable that Tsui would publish her 2020 book Why We Swim, which explores the global history and... https://www.scmp.com/postmag/culture/article/3344849/hkilfs-literary-legend-visits-through-years?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/postmag/culture/article/3344849/hkilfs-literary-legend-visits-through-years?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 27 Feb 2026 07:16:56 +0000 Charmaine Yu Charmaine Yu In a world obsessed with aesthetic perfection, Harmonia asks a radical question: what happens to our understanding of beauty when we trade judgment for curiosity? Uniting a cast of performers including dancers with congenital limb differences, dwarfism and wheelchair needs, the experimental dance project by Unusual Symptoms – a company-in-residence at Germany’s Theatre Bremen – exhibits the vocabulary of unconventional movement. The project premiered in Germany in 2022 and won best work at the... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3343970/inclusive-dance-team-unites-unconventional-performers-coming-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3343970/inclusive-dance-team-unites-unconventional-performers-coming-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 23 Feb 2026 04:15:07 +0000 Ashlyn Chak Ashlyn Chak Although widely recognised as the world’s first professional inclusive music ensemble, there is so much more to the Paraorchestra than its full integration of disabled and non-disabled musicians. When the British collective won best ensemble at the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards in March 2025, it was lauded for “invigorating concert halls with thrilling experiences”. Indeed, the group has been celebrated around the world for its signature performance style that breaks the fourth wall of... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3342865/paraorchestras-hong-kong-concert-lets-audience-walk-around-see-musicians-close?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3342865/paraorchestras-hong-kong-concert-lets-audience-walk-around-see-musicians-close?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 09 Feb 2026 11:15:09 +0000 Charmaine Yu Charmaine Yu Part surrealist descent, part literary manifesto, The Drunkard by Shanghai-born Liu Yichang is a quintessential piece of Hong Kong literature and a landmark of modernist experimentation. The 1962 stream-of-consciousness novel – the first of its type written in Chinese – follows an unnamed writer struggling against a shallow, commercialised society. As he sinks into alcoholism against a gritty, neon-lit urban backdrop, his personal collapse serves as a poignant allegory for the brutality of World... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3342519/major-hong-kong-literary-work-drunkard-reimagined-stage-german-director?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3342519/major-hong-kong-literary-work-drunkard-reimagined-stage-german-director?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 09 Feb 2026 07:15:09 +0000 Paola Ventimiglia Paola Ventimiglia Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, known as Caravaggio, would have loved to “free” that form trapped in marble – and even more so to paint a statuesque, sculpted body like that of ballet dancer Roberto Bolle. Every muscle in his finely defined physique tells the story of the effort, discipline and sacrifice the international star of classical dance has invested to become who he is today at the age of 50. I meet him at the Teatro Carlo Felice in the Italian city of Genoa, ahead of a performance... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/people/icons-influencers/article/3339596/ballet-star-roberto-bolle-dance-and-discipline-caravaggio-and-chiaroscuro?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/people/icons-influencers/article/3339596/ballet-star-roberto-bolle-dance-and-discipline-caravaggio-and-chiaroscuro?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 13 Jan 2026 22:00:11 +0000 Chloe Loung Chloe Loung Bookings for the 54th Hong Kong Arts Festival have begun, following the release of the full line-up on October 16, which features more than 1,000 artists from around the world. The festival, which runs from February 27 to March 30, 2026, will open with Ballet Nacional de España performing the Asia premiere of Rubén Olmo’s dance drama La Bella Otero. The production, which features Flamenco and elements of Belle Époque, tells the life story of Carolina Otero, a 19th-century Spanish dancer and... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3329250/hong-kong-arts-festival-2026-include-caravaggio-ballet-and-music-mozart-and-bach?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3329250/hong-kong-arts-festival-2026-include-caravaggio-ballet-and-music-mozart-and-bach?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 16 Oct 2025 09:45:08 +0000 John Batten John Batten The 19th Hong Kong Arts Development Awards were held at Hong Kong City Hall on June 10, organised by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council (HKADC). This annual event acknowledges achievements in many categories, but as an art critic, I was watching the visual arts prizes closely. The artist of the year award (visual arts) went to Enoch Cheng Tak-yan, while the young artist award (visual arts) went to Dony Cheng Hung. Cash prizes of HK$50,000 (US$6,400) and HK$25,000 respectively were... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3315433/what-hong-kong-arts-development-awards-need-learn-art-basels?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3315433/what-hong-kong-arts-development-awards-need-learn-art-basels?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 24 Jun 2025 08:15:07 +0000 Natasha Rogai Natasha Rogai Arguably the most popular of all operas, Carmen is especially beloved of Hong Kong audiences. Fittingly, in the year that marks the 150th anniversary of both the opera and of the death of its composer, Georges Bizet, the Hong Kong Arts Festival (HKAF) presented a production that recreated the original staging of 1875. The result was visually stunning and gave a fascinating sense of what audiences experienced 150 years ago, while offering a refreshing contrast to the modern trend of transposing... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3304523/visually-stunning-bizets-carmen-hong-kong-recreates-original-1875-staging?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3304523/visually-stunning-bizets-carmen-hong-kong-recreates-original-1875-staging?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 31 Mar 2025 09:15:07 +0000 Natasha Rogai Natasha Rogai More than 30 years after his untimely death in 1993, Rudolf Nureyev’s name has lost none of its magic. Nureyev & Friends – A Ballet Gala Tribute revisits a project Nureyev himself created in which a group of dancers would tour with a programme of short pieces, presenting top-notch ballet around the world. The repertoire consisted of works drawn from Nureyev’s career. It ranged from the familiar, with some of ballet’s most famous pas de deux, to lesser-known pieces and featured some of Nureyev’s... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3303591/mariinsky-ballets-maria-khoreva-dazzles-rudolf-nureyev-tribute-hong-kong-festival?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3303591/mariinsky-ballets-maria-khoreva-dazzles-rudolf-nureyev-tribute-hong-kong-festival?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 24 Mar 2025 08:45:07 +0000 One of the more unlikely pairings in this year’s Hong Kong Arts Festival is that of Ludwig van Beethoven and manga. The composer, born in 1770, and Japanese graphic novels, popular since the late 19th century, do not usually keep cultural company. But in this week’s Beethoven Wars: A Battle for Peace – described as the “first manga opera” – Japanese-style animation unfurls a tale of intergalactic strife to live orchestral music written by the German genius. It is no coincidence that when it... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3303575/beethoven-meets-space-battles-first-manga-opera-2025-hong-kong-arts-festival?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3303575/beethoven-meets-space-battles-first-manga-opera-2025-hong-kong-arts-festival?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 24 Mar 2025 04:44:27 +0000 Christopher Halls Christopher Halls The finest craftsmen hone their skills and consistently strive for the highest quality, and the Hungarian-British pianist Andras Schiff does the same in music, whether at the keyboard or when directing ensembles from it. For the 53rd Hong Kong Arts Festival, the 71-year-old performed with his ensemble Capella Andrea Barca, comprising selected Europe-based musicians and wittily named after the Italian translation of Andras and Schiff – the German word for ship. His reputation for perfection was... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3303278/refined-mozart-and-bach-andras-schiff-and-cappella-andrea-barca-hong-kong-concerts?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3303278/refined-mozart-and-bach-andras-schiff-and-cappella-andrea-barca-hong-kong-concerts?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 21 Mar 2025 08:45:07 +0000 Natasha Rogai Natasha Rogai Czech National Ballet made its Hong Kong Arts Festival debut with La Sylphide – the earliest and best conserved complete ballet still to feature in the international repertoire. Staged for the company last year by Danish ballet superstar Johan Kobborg, this was a pleasingly authentic production which featured much good dancing and some lively acting. It was a real pity there was no live music – always a problem for ballet. This was compounded by poor quality sound which failed to do justice to... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3301721/la-sylphide-review-czech-national-ballet-dances-precision-and-authenticity?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3301721/la-sylphide-review-czech-national-ballet-dances-precision-and-authenticity?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 10 Mar 2025 03:15:08 +0000 Christopher Halls Christopher Halls Siberian-born pianist Pavel Kolesnikov is known to have a surprise or two up his sleeve. To highlight the “outrageous” side of Mozart’s music on February 19 in his Hong Kong City Hall recital, he chose to sport a supremely unflattering, baggy frog-green suit. While it was an odd choice – although one best left to the fashion writers – his imaginative and thought-provoking juxtaposition of works by Mozart and Ravel was an eye-opener of far greater substance. Just as eye-opening was Kolesnikov’s... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3299909/pavel-kolesnikov-hong-kong-sinfonietta-deliver-fluid-buoyant-beethoven-piano-concerto?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3299909/pavel-kolesnikov-hong-kong-sinfonietta-deliver-fluid-buoyant-beethoven-piano-concerto?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 24 Feb 2025 09:45:08 +0000 Connor Mycroft Connor Mycroft Russia hopes to show off more of its rich arts heritage in Hong Kong, according to its top diplomat in the city, as the country shifts its cultural focus from Europe to Asia in the wake of the Ukraine war. Consul General Anatoly Kargapolov said leading Russian museums were “ready to share” their artworks with top Hong Kong institutions, including M+, the Palace Museum, the Hong Kong Museum of Art and the Hong Kong Museum of History. “The negotiation process is under way, and I am sure we are... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/3284029/russian-art-and-bolshoi-hong-kong-envoy-says-top-museums-ready-share?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/3284029/russian-art-and-bolshoi-hong-kong-envoy-says-top-museums-ready-share?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 28 Oct 2024 02:00:28 +0000 When a composer who is equally at home writing music for the Chinese sheng (a mouth-blown reed instrument) as he is keyboards or works to be sung a cappella produces a piece for drum set, bass guitar and full orchestra, the question of whether cross-genre fusion could turn into confusion inevitably arises. Thankfully, this wasn’t the case on March 23 in Hong Kong Sinfonietta’s diverse and jam-packed Hong Kong Arts Festival concert at Hong Kong City Hall. Fly LIVE! and An Array of Stars by Hong... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3256876/japanese-drummer-senri-kawaguchi-steals-show-fusion-concert-hong-kong-sinfonietta?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3256876/japanese-drummer-senri-kawaguchi-steals-show-fusion-concert-hong-kong-sinfonietta?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 27 Mar 2024 09:45:18 +0000 Shanghai Ballet last appeared in Hong Kong in 2013 with its signature work White Haired Girl, the 1960s communist propaganda classic. The production this time is A Sigh of Love, created for the company in 2006 by the late French choreographer Bertrand d’At, with designs by another Frenchman, Jerome Kaplan, and a story by scenarist Cao Lusheng. It was consistently well danced and visually striking, yet failed to come to life. Coincidentally, the Chinese title is the same as Wong Kar-wai’s In the... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3256574/shanghai-ballets-sigh-love-visually-impressive-too-much-padding-and-key-score?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3256574/shanghai-ballets-sigh-love-visually-impressive-too-much-padding-and-key-score?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 25 Mar 2024 09:15:11 +0000 Canadian director Robert Lepage entranced audiences in Hong Kong with his autobiographical 887 five years ago, a solo performance aided by his masterful use of toy-size props. For this year’s Hong Kong Arts Festival, he and his group, Ex Machina, brought something a bit different. Courville is loosely based on memories of his youth and told with life-size puppets inspired by the Japanese bunraku tradition. Set in 1975, it centres on 17-year-old Simon and his small world in Courville, a town... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3256165/japanese-puppetry-helps-tell-story-gay-teenagers-trauma-1970s-quebec-dazzling-robert-lepage?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3256165/japanese-puppetry-helps-tell-story-gay-teenagers-trauma-1970s-quebec-dazzling-robert-lepage?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 22 Mar 2024 09:15:15 +0000 Stravinsky once sneered that the ever-modish Vivaldi wrote the same concerto five hundred times. Clearly, the Russian modernist’s concept of originality was worlds away from that of the Italian baroque. It was a particularly low blow given the degree of innovation in works such as L’estro armonico (which means harmonic inspiration), performed by Concerto Italiano as part of the Hong Kong Arts Festival on March 9. Rinaldo Alessandrini’s formidable Rome-based period instrument ensemble presented... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3255961/feast-string-playing-hong-kong-arts-festival-concerts-concerto-italiano-playing-vivaldi-and-festival?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3255961/feast-string-playing-hong-kong-arts-festival-concerts-concerto-italiano-playing-vivaldi-and-festival?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 20 Mar 2024 08:22:12 +0000 Ken Smith Ken Smith Sceptics who think that symphony orchestras and heavy metal bands occupy incompatible realms need only consider Lauri Porra. The great-grandson of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, Porra has written a fair amount of his own music – mostly for television and film, with an occasional dip into the orchestra world – but at home, he is much more famous as the bassist for the power metal band Stratovarius. Eicca Toppinen may not have quite so distinguished a lineage – none of his ancestors has ever... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3255765/heavy-metal-music-meets-orchestral-sound-bright-black-hong-kong-arts-festival-mixed-results?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3255765/heavy-metal-music-meets-orchestral-sound-bright-black-hong-kong-arts-festival-mixed-results?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 19 Mar 2024 09:15:18 +0000 Milan’s La Scala Theatre Ballet returned to Hong Kong for the first time since 2014 to dance Le Corsaire, one of the most entertaining of the classic 19th century ballets. The production boasts gorgeous sets and costumes by Italian designer Luisa Spinatelli and had some fine moments, notably Nicoletta Manni’s superb interpretation of the heroine, Medora, but overall the performance was uneven. Last time La Scala Theatre Ballet appeared in Hong Kong the artistic director was Makhar Vaziev, now... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3255735/le-corsaire-la-scala-theatre-ballet-hong-kong-arts-festival-had-its-moments-star-turn-nicoletta?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3255735/le-corsaire-la-scala-theatre-ballet-hong-kong-arts-festival-had-its-moments-star-turn-nicoletta?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 18 Mar 2024 08:15:12 +0000 When a production trumpets the words “complete version” in its title, then credits the director and another playwright with “trimming and editing” the script, you have to ask what exactly the definition of “complete” is. The Chinese opera highlight of the 2024 Hong Kong Arts Festival was the Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe (Skot)’s new production of The Peony Pavilion, Tang Xianzu’s Ming dynasty classic staged in three instalments at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Grand Theatre. Billed as “complete”... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3254660/hong-kong-performance-tang-xianzus-peony-pavilion-shanghai-kunqu-opera-troupe-was-impressive-not?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3254660/hong-kong-performance-tang-xianzus-peony-pavilion-shanghai-kunqu-opera-troupe-was-impressive-not?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 11 Mar 2024 08:15:10 +0000 From the mixtape to the playlist, curating disparate music around a central theme has become something almost anyone with basic technology can do at home. So where does that leave the music professionals, particularly ones with fresh ideas who truly want to raise the programmatic bar? One can certainly imagine “Garden of Repose” – before it became an actual garden – starting out with the working title “Requiem Playlist”, but the multimedia choral concert commissioned and produced by the Hong... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3254529/hong-kong-arts-festivals-multimedia-choral-concert-garden-repose-reimagines-works-brahms-arvo-part?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3254529/hong-kong-arts-festivals-multimedia-choral-concert-garden-repose-reimagines-works-brahms-arvo-part?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 08 Mar 2024 08:15:09 +0000 “What’s the difference between music and painting? About 10 years,” a composer friend used to say. His point was that, from 17th-century Baroque to 20th-century Minimalism, major societal trends were reflected on the canvas – along with sculpture and architecture – some time before composers found a way to express a similar sensibility in sound. The Netherlands Chamber Choir brought that sentiment to the Hong Kong Arts Festival last weekend in their programme “Van Gogh in Me”, a vibrant... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3254187/van-gogh-and-klimt-artworks-get-torn-apart-music-based-debussy-gustav-mahler-saint-saens-and-more?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3254187/van-gogh-and-klimt-artworks-get-torn-apart-music-based-debussy-gustav-mahler-saint-saens-and-more?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 05 Mar 2024 10:15:16 +0000 South Korean pianist Minsoo Sohn takes people on a journey of profound emotions when he performs. The stage is unadorned – it is just Sohn in his plain black suit and the piano – but his presence fills the space the moment he hits that first note. His intense focus and seriousness towards his calling can be felt even from the second tier of seating in the Lotte Concert Hall in Seoul, South Korea, which holds more than 2,000 people. More is revealed when Sohn speaks about his art. He talks slowly... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3254074/live-or-die-love-music-says-pianist-minsoo-sohn-teacher-prodigy-yunchan-lim-his-art-and-south-koreas?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3254074/live-or-die-love-music-says-pianist-minsoo-sohn-teacher-prodigy-yunchan-lim-his-art-and-south-koreas?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 05 Mar 2024 08:11:15 +0000 It is 10am on a Wednesday at The Korea Economic Daily’s office in Seoul and all 18 floors of South Korea’s biggest financial news organisation are packed with journalists going about their daily business. Presenters are updating stock prices live in a television studio and reporters are typing their news stories. Amid the bustle of the newsroom, soothing harmonies emerge from a large hall in the building. The Hankyung Arte Philharmonic, an orchestra founded by the media company in 2015, is... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3247618/why-young-hong-kong-born-conductor-chose-build-his-career-seoul-popularity-classical-music-south?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3247618/why-young-hong-kong-born-conductor-chose-build-his-career-seoul-popularity-classical-music-south?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 09 Jan 2024 05:15:07 +0000 Audiences have come to expect at least a few big spectacles at the annual Hong Kong Arts Festival: opera, ballet and preferably, a few world-famous stars performing. The 52nd arts festival, which will take place in February and March 2024, will not disappoint, says Grace Lang, programme director. “This is the first fully back-to-normal edition since the pandemic. We are bringing back advance booking since the full line-up can be confirmed by October. “And we are bringing shows that were delayed... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3230375/hong-kong-arts-festival-2024-highlights-van-gogh-set-music-ballet-teatro-alla-scala-angelique-kidjos?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3230375/hong-kong-arts-festival-2024-highlights-van-gogh-set-music-ballet-teatro-alla-scala-angelique-kidjos?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 08 Aug 2023 09:15:16 +0000 If there was any doubt about Natalia Osipova’s superstar status, it will have been put to rest by the demand for tickets that led to two extra shows being added for both her programmes, “Force of Nature” and “Two Feet”, in this year’s Hong Kong Arts Festival. The Russian ballerina, for some years now a principal with the Royal Ballet in London, clearly possesses extraordinary energy, strength and stamina to take on two shows a night for two days running, twice in one week, with only one day off... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3214239/superstar-russian-ballerina-dazzles-hong-kong-arts-festival-performances?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3214239/superstar-russian-ballerina-dazzles-hong-kong-arts-festival-performances?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 21 Mar 2023 05:45:12 +0000 The Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra (HKCO) has come up with some pretty way out concepts over the years, but they have usually had their feet on the ground. Its production for the closing weekend of the 2023 Hong Kong Arts Festival, entitled “The Stage Door on Mars”, took a somewhat extraterrestrial approach, however. Conceived by composer and music producer Ng King-pan, the 75-minute multimedia presentation was set in both the past and the future. It recalled the premieres of Cantonese operas from... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3214132/hong-kong-chinese-orchestra-concert-triumphant-celebration-adaptability-cantonese-opera-and-music?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3214132/hong-kong-chinese-orchestra-concert-triumphant-celebration-adaptability-cantonese-opera-and-music?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 20 Mar 2023 09:45:10 +0000 Silent Opera, founded in 2011 by the London-based stage director Daisy Evans, is an exercise in creative destruction. Take traditional operas, rip away the orchestra, chorus and any superfluous characters – and while we’re at it, the stage – and what do you have left? In the case of Vixen, a 70-minute immersive presentation at Tai Kwun’s Prison Yard and Laundry Steps as part of this year’s Hong Kong Arts Festival, you have an engaging, challenging and often frustrating argument over the... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3213834/silent-operas-immersive-opera-vixen-without-orchestra-chorus-or-stage-brings-narrative-clarity?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3213834/silent-operas-immersive-opera-vixen-without-orchestra-chorus-or-stage-brings-narrative-clarity?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 17 Mar 2023 08:15:15 +0000 Art has become both more accessible and plentiful in Hong Kong, opening the door for many potential patrons to consider starting, and building, a collection. This is easier said than done. There is an art to art collecting that must be considered. Prospective collectors must get in tune with their own personalities, interests, and insights. Some collectors are more interested in value, seeing art as an investment, while others follow artists, or buy to suit specific spaces. Some are chasing... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/leisure/article/3213373/how-build-art-collection-hong-kong-setting-budget-big-names-and-new-trends-experts-weigh-what-know?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/leisure/article/3213373/how-build-art-collection-hong-kong-setting-budget-big-names-and-new-trends-experts-weigh-what-know?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 14 Mar 2023 00:00:18 +0000 Anna Netrebko, arguably the greatest soprano the world has seen in the past 30 years, made an eagerly waited return to Hong Kong last week, her first since 2016. And she proved that the difficult past year – when many Western opera houses cancelled her engagements unless she agreed to specifically denounce Vladimir Putin, and her performances were cancelled in Russia after she has denounced the war in Ukraine – has done nothing to dim the lustre of her magnificent voice and mesmerising stage... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3213369/anna-netrebko-and-yusif-eyvazov-recital-soprano-dazzles-revelatory-russian-repertoire-husband-shows?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3213369/anna-netrebko-and-yusif-eyvazov-recital-soprano-dazzles-revelatory-russian-repertoire-husband-shows?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 13 Mar 2023 10:45:08 +0000 There’s been an abundance of diverse, top-notch performing arts events in Hong Kong of late, and pianist Pavel Kolesnikov’s concert with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta was no exception. It opened on an intriguing note with the world premiere of Hong Kong composer Lam Lai’s There is No Place like Home (Beta). The composer – performing herself as electronics soloist with conductor the orchestra under the baton of Yip Wing-sie – took the sell-out audience on an imaginary 12-year journey from Earth to... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3213341/pavel-kolesnikov-and-hong-kong-sinfoniettas-resounding-rach-3-moving-shostakovich-strings-and-hong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3213341/pavel-kolesnikov-and-hong-kong-sinfoniettas-resounding-rach-3-moving-shostakovich-strings-and-hong?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 13 Mar 2023 08:45:15 +0000 Hong Kong’s creative community has never been without a fighting spirit, and in recent years, it has needed one – pandemic-related restrictions kept creatives apart, making collaborations all the more difficult. “Collaboration is key when it comes to what we do,” reiterates Maria Wong, managing director of street art festival HKwalls. “It’s important to identify the right partners to spark ideas with.” Wong is a curator and arts producer who has brought the city’s streets to life. Each... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/leisure/article/3213109/inside-soho-house-hong-kong-artsy-members-club-hosting-street-art-festival-hkwalls-2023-again-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/leisure/article/3213109/inside-soho-house-hong-kong-artsy-members-club-hosting-street-art-festival-hkwalls-2023-again-and?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 13 Mar 2023 00:00:13 +0000 March is proving to be mayhem for events in Hong Kong, with the recent successes of events including Clockenflap and the Hong Kong Arts Festival earlier in the month, and the hot-ticketed Rugby Sevens tournament taking place at the end of this month. And with Art Basel’s 2023 iteration promising bigger names, more galleries and a whole host of new offerings, it may come as no surprise that the rest of the city is following suit. Here’s our pick of the biggest and best cultural events hitting... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/leisure/article/3212666/beyond-art-basel-11-best-cultural-events-hong-kong-month-coco-chanel-ballet-and-ms-yayoi-kusama?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/leisure/article/3212666/beyond-art-basel-11-best-cultural-events-hong-kong-month-coco-chanel-ballet-and-ms-yayoi-kusama?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 08 Mar 2023 00:00:15 +0000 Yat-sen, a musical, was originally commissioned for the 50th Hong Kong Arts Festival in 2022, but ended up being pushed back one year because of venue closures during the Covid-19 pandemic. All that extra rehearsal time showed in the slick production about Sun Yat-sen, the “founding father” of modern China, as a young man. It is a tale of clashes between conservatism and progression, of hot-headed youth battling authoritarianism, of hard choices and unforeseeable sacrifices. If those references... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3212487/musical-about-modern-chinas-founding-father-sun-yat-sen-starring-ling-man-lung-showcases-impressive?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3212487/musical-about-modern-chinas-founding-father-sun-yat-sen-starring-ling-man-lung-showcases-impressive?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 06 Mar 2023 09:45:11 +0000 “Dazzle” is a cringeworthy title for a world-class chamber music recital, especially when Schubert’s emotionally charged “Death and the Maiden” quartet is the main feature. Fortunately, the award-winning Esmé Quartet showed deep insight into the music as well as dazzling the audience with their brilliance in their Hong Kong Arts Festival concert on February 28. Superb artistry and near flawless intonation marked the Esmé’s performance of three quartets – the others were by Haydn and Borodin. It... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3212090/death-and-maiden-ages-esme-quartet-their-dazzling-hong-kong-recital-debut-stand-violist?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3212090/death-and-maiden-ages-esme-quartet-their-dazzling-hong-kong-recital-debut-stand-violist?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 02 Mar 2023 10:45:10 +0000 Follow nature, learn from water – this is the best way to capture the gist of The Book of Water, a complex stage work with drama, live music and film created by composer and director Michel van der Aa. For all its intricately rendered mesh of live and recorded performances, The Book of Water is at heart a work with one big idea: that, far from being merely a threat, impending natural disasters are an opportunity for personal renewal and reconciliation. Taken at face value, van der Aa’s linking... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3211806/melodrama-reinvented-ted-talk-operatic-stage-book-water-starring-samuel-and-timothy-west-multimedia?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3211806/melodrama-reinvented-ted-talk-operatic-stage-book-water-starring-samuel-and-timothy-west-multimedia?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 28 Feb 2023 09:45:11 +0000 Can a historically informed performance of music written 200 years ago deliver an entirely authentic sound experience given the absence of recordings? Obviously not. Then again, historical replication is not the only name of the game. As conductor Laurence Equilbey pointed out in the programme notes for the all-Beethoven concert performed in Hong Kong on February 25 by the period instrument orchestra Insula, the Accentus choir and piano soloist Yuan Sheng, “learning where the expression and... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3211665/beethoven-period-instruments-mixed-success-cavernous-hong-kong-concert-hall-chinese-pianist-yuan?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3211665/beethoven-period-instruments-mixed-success-cavernous-hong-kong-concert-hall-chinese-pianist-yuan?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 27 Feb 2023 09:45:07 +0000 Paris-born Canadian pianist Bruce Liu thrilled and enchanted in a cracking recital for the 51st Hong Kong’s Arts Festival, delivering inspired Chopin playing, an alluring and impressionistic Ravel interpretation, and a brilliant performance of Liszt’s fiendishly difficult Réminiscences de Don Juan. With Liu crowned winner of the 18th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in 2021, it was practically a given that both of the chosen Chopin works would impress. And that they did. Liu’s... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3210549/young-chinese-canadian-pianist-bruce-liu-shows-his-artistry-has-no-limits-thrilling-mature-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3210549/young-chinese-canadian-pianist-bruce-liu-shows-his-artistry-has-no-limits-thrilling-mature-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 17 Feb 2023 09:45:08 +0000 For their Covid-delayed debut in Hong Kong, the award-winning Esmé Quartet will begin with a joke – or rather, “The Joke”, as Haydn’s String Quartet in E-flat Major is known. The four Korean-born female musicians who make up the quartet are eager to bring lightness and joy to the city during this year’s Hong Kong Arts Festival, the first since the relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions. Their recital on February 28 will be followed by a performance on March 4 with the Hong Kong Philharmonic... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3210138/all-female-korean-string-quartet-defying-doubters-and-becoming-blackpink-classical-music?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3210138/all-female-korean-string-quartet-defying-doubters-and-becoming-blackpink-classical-music?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 14 Feb 2023 10:15:14 +0000 Some will disagree, but Laurence Equilbey thinks actress Cate Blanchett did a pretty good job conducting an orchestra in the film Tár. “I’ve seen it. The first part, the commentary on our business, describing the daily life of the musical director of the Berlin Philharmonic, Cate is superb and credible. She conducts very well I think. Then the thriller sets in. “I like the fact that she’s hard, neurotic and excessive. At this level of power, men and women are equal. I am also proud that she... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3209005/conductor-her-love-period-instruments-being-name-checked-cate-blanchetts-character-tar-and-why?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3209005/conductor-her-love-period-instruments-being-name-checked-cate-blanchetts-character-tar-and-why?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 04 Feb 2023 09:15:12 +0000 What better way to mark the return (fingers crossed!) of the first full-scale, in-person Hong Kong Arts Festival in three years than with the presence of two true international superstars, the Russian ballerina Natalia Osipova and her compatriot, the great opera diva Anna Netrebko. Osipova, principal ballerina of The Royal Ballet in London and star of the 2019 documentary Force of Nature, has been wowing audiences around the world with a new version of Carmen this year and a showcase of her... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3199582/sun-yat-sen-musical-superstar-ballerina-natalia-osipova-among-2023-hong-kong-arts-festival?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3199582/sun-yat-sen-musical-superstar-ballerina-natalia-osipova-among-2023-hong-kong-arts-festival?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 14 Nov 2022 11:11:23 +0000