The 49th Hong Kong Arts Festival in 2021
Announces Festival Encore in April: Five More Brilliant Performances!
Ticket Bookings and Online Registrations from 19 March 2021
(Hong Kong, 18 March 2021)
The 49th Hong Kong Arts Festival (HKAF) announces five extra Festival performances in April, after the Festival Finale by Igor Moiseyev Ballet on 26th March. This is a special arrangement that has been necessitated by venue restrictions both in Hong Kong and overseas. The five encore programmes include three which will be presented free of charge online via the HKAF’s digital platform: Elim Chan with the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Wilson Ng with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, and China National Peking Opera Company’s A Perfect Matrimony. Two will be ticketed in-venue performances: The Chop’s Pathetic Fallacy at JC Cube in Tai Kwun, and Donmar Warehouse’s Blindness at The Box at West Kowloon Cultural District.
Ticket bookings and online registrations for all five encore programmes will begin at 10am on 19 March.
Look out too for the exciting HKArtsFestival@Taikwun, which will be held in June this year. Programme details will be announced soon.
ONLINE PROGRAMMES
Elim Chan and the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra16 to 19 April
Led by Hong Kong’s own Elim Chan, the first-ever female winner of the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition, the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra—whose previous chief conductors include Edo de Waart and Jaap van Zweden—will present Shostakovich’s powerful and extraordinarily virtuosic First Cello Concerto starring six-time Echo Klassik award-winner Sol Gabetta, as well as works heralding the dawn and twilight of the Romantic era.
Wilson Ng and the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra23 to 26 April
Wilson Ng made history when he became the youngest-ever conductor of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, the first Asian orchestra to land an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon. Together with Moscow-trained and Berlin-based award-winning pianist Dong-Hyek Lim, Ng will make a glorious return to the HKAF after a decade, conducting a programme of robust and electrifying twentieth-century orchestral repertoire.
China National Peking Opera Company: A Perfect Matrimony23 to 26 April
At last, after a long Peking Opera drought, lovers of China’s pre-eminent traditional performance art have the prospect of slaking their thirst. The HKAF brings the timeless favourite A Perfect Matrimony by the China National Peking Opera Company, streamed directly to your homes. This repertoire was inspired by an episode in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, one of the four great classical novels of Chinese literature. The plot revolves round a honeytrap, successfully set for Liu Bei, the ruler of Jingzhou, in the course of a territorial power struggle. Yu Kuizhi and Li Shengsu star as the regal lovers in this compelling drama of desire and political manipulation, also notable for the extravagance of its set and costumes, and for the accomplishment of the exacting dance and martial arts performances.
Free registrations for the above online programmes can be made on the Festival website at www.hk.artsfestival.org from 10am on 19 March 2021.
IN-VENUE PROGRAMMES
Donmar Warehouse: Blindness15 to 18 April | The Box, Freespace, West Kowloon Cultural District
A sound installation based on Nobel laureate José Saramago’s dystopian novel, Blindness—hailed by the New York Times as “a triumph”—is adapted by Tony Award-winning playwright Simon Stephens (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) and directed by Walter Meierjohann. The “artistically and technologically pioneering” (Daily Telegraph) production from London’s Donmar Warehouse tells the gripping story of the rise and ultimately hopeful end of an unimaginable global pandemic. Audiences will be immersed into the binaural sound world and brought along on an exhilarating and unforgettable journey as the narrative unfolds around them.
The Chop: Pathetic Fallacy*24 to 25 April │ JC Cube, Tai Kwun
Pathetic Fallacy is a thought-provoking and inventive show from Vancouver’s award-winning The Chop. Through creating a live touring work that reduces climate impact by not putting performers “on tour”, writer-director Anita Rochon works with local artist Pichead Amornsomboon in this inspiring theatre piece that plots a line between ancient weather gods and immediate conundrums. Delivered with wit and curiosity, the work examines our changing relationship with the weather and questions the value and emotion in the face of a coming storm.
*Pathetic Fallacy was originally scheduled for performance at the 49th HKAF in March 2021, and was postponed, given the uncertainty of venue availability due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tickets for Pathetic Fallacy can be purchased at URBTIX outlets (online booking at www.urbtix.hk or telephone booking at 2111 5999); while tickets for Blindness can be purchased at West Kowloon Cultural District (online booking at www.westkowloon.hk or telephone booking at 2200 0022).
OTHER PROGRAMMES NOT TO BE MISSED
The ongoing 49th HKAF presents a diverse programme of in-venue and online performances. Notable programmes include the following:
- The Plague (English version): A chilling adaptation of Albert Camus’s existentialist literary classic, The Plague (English version) is directed by Beijing avant-garde theatre-maker Wang Chong and performed in real time by six actors across six different locations and time zones.
- Cantonese Opera Noah’s Ark: A contemporary theatrical production featuring magnificent sets and costumes, the Cantonese opera Noah’s Ark retells the Biblical story of the Great Flood with a modern twist.
- Wiener Symphoniker: The venerated Wiener Symphoniker honours its heritage with a gala concert dedicated to the 150th anniversary of Franz Lehár, the king of Viennese operetta.
- Igor Moiseyev Ballet: Moscow’s legendary dance company presents a unique online programme especially curated for the HKAF finale performance, featuring nine of its best-loved dances created by pioneering founder Igor Moiseyev. The Festival Finale is sponsored by ICBC (Asia).
In this exceptional year, PLUS continues to bring “More than Great Performances” to enrich audience experiences beyond the stage. Most of the programmes are available to watch until the end of June.
Tickets for in-venue performances in March are available via URBTIX, while tickets for PLUS film screenings are available at respective cinemas. For online performances and other PLUS events, registrations can be made on the Festival website at www.hk.artsfestival.org.
ABOUT THE HONG KONG ARTS FESTIVAL
Launched in 1973, the Hong Kong Arts Festival is a major international arts festival committed to enriching the cultural life of the city. In February and March every year the Festival presents leading local and international artists from all genres of the performing arts, according equal importance to great traditions and contemporary creations. The Festival also commissions and produces works in theatre, music, chamber opera, and contemporary dance by Hong Kong’s own creative talents and emerging artists, many of which have had successful subsequent runs in Hong Kong and overseas. Every year the Festival also presents over 250 PLUS and educational activities that offer diverse arts experiences to the community, as well as to tertiary, secondary and primary school students. In addition through the “No Limits” project, co-presented with The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, the Festival strives to create an inclusive space for people with different abilities to share the joy of the arts together.
MEDIA ENQUIRIES
For further enquiries, please contact Ms Katy Cheng, Marketing Director, at katy.cheng@hkaf.org, or:
Mr Dennis Chan (Opera and Music programmes) at dennis.chan@hkaf.org
Ms Alexia Chow (Chinese Opera, Theatre and Dance programmes) at alexia.chow@hkaf.org