Executive Director's Message

Dear Friends

With the Festival team, I am very pleased to present details of the 40th Hong Kong Arts Festival (HKAF), contained in the following pages.

A celebratory Festival marking forty years of great performances, this is a feast in double measure, with Dieter Dorn’s elegant production of Così Fan Tutte from the Bavarian State Opera and Peter Brook’s reworking of The Magic Flute into a fresh, intimate A Magic Flute ; two stellar visiting orchestras and inspiring conductors: the Royal Concertgebouw with Myung-whun Chung and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra with Daniel Harding; two vocal ensembles, The Sixteen with Harry Christophers and Dominante with Seppo Murto; and Hong Kong’s own Chinese Orchestra and Sinfonietta in two adventurous, groundbreaking programmes.

Jazz greats Charlie Haden and Dr John are among the 40th HKAF headliners. The inimitable Nigel Kennedy plays Fats Waller and Bach. Tinariwen makes its debut, Christina Pluhar returns with L’Arpeggiata and China Folk Rock raises the decibel level. The celebration continues with the gorgeous Karita Mattila in recital and Kun Woo Paik reprising his all-Ravel triumph.

There are two major story ballets: John Neumeier’s A Streetcar Named Desire and Jean-Christophe Maillot’s Le Songe; and works by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Benjamin Millepied. Drawing from dance talent closer to home, the Asia Pacific Dance Platform reaches its fourth instalment, alongside a new series for contemporary dance in Hong Kong. For that typical touch of eclecticism, The Geisha of Gion presents an entertainment usually shrouded in privacy, Aurélien Bory’s Compagnie 111 tangles with a robot in Sans Objet, and the World of WearableArt embarks on its first ever international outing at this Festival.

Tribute productions commemorate Beijing Opera laosheng master Ma Lianliang and recall the golden age of Cantonese Opera. Contemporary theatre master Lin Zhaohua directs Nobel laureate Gao Xingjian’s retelling of ancient myths in Of Mountains and Seas; and the next generation is featured in the Credit Suisse Emerging Artists Series, ExxonMobil Vision Series, Hong Kong Jockey Club Contemporary Dance Series and New Stage Series.

A performance of any form or provenance persuades its audience to enter a reality of the imagination. This power to conjure and persuade, which lies at the heart of the creative impulse, informs many theatre productions in this Festival. Faith Healer, The Importance of Being Earnest, 40th HKAF commissions and productions Show Flat by Poon Wai-sum and Chong Mui-ngam’s The Wild Boar, and the 38th HKAF hit The Truth About Lying all revolve around a reality created by the protagonist.

And on persuasive performance, mention must be made of Richard III with Kevin Spacey in the title role, which played in September 2011 and was the first 40th HKAF programme. The final production to open is Titus Andronicus (2012) directed by Tang Shu-wing, in April 2012. So this is a sprawling Festival, both in time and in geography with performances in Star Hall in Kowloon Bay, Nan Lian Garden in Diamond Hill, the IFC in Central, and many other venues in the New Territories and on both sides of Hong Kong harbour.

It is a great privilege to present the remarkable international artists who converge in this city for the Festival, and to work with such an array of Hong Kong’s own top talent. The Festival team is indebted to everyone who has made the HKAF possible over the years, and looks forward to your participation at many performances and events in the 40th HKAF.
 

Executive Director
Hong Kong Arts Festival
Tisa Ho