The 51st Hong Kong Arts Festival in 2023

Announces Full Programme Information

Ticket Bookings start on Tuesday 3 January 2023

(Hong Kong, 15 December 2022)

The Hong Kong Arts Festival (HKAF) is pleased to announce details of the entire programme of the forthcoming 51st HKAF in February and March 2023. In addition to programmes already announced in Book 1 of the Programme and Booking Guide, the following artists and programmes will also be featured in the 51st HKAF, including Anna Netrebko and Yusif Eyvazov, Loveless Romance—a new drama by Cheung Tat-ming, the dance-opera Love Streams, Jockey Club InnoArts Series: First Steps, Dance Me to the End of Night—a raving dance-theatre piece by Mao Wei, Jockey Club Local Creative Talents Series: Vixen, an installation concert Hyperreality, Kevin Cheng, Tsang Yat-ho, and film screenings from Internationaal Theater Amsterdam.

Full programme information can be found on the HKAF website. Ticket bookings will open at 10am on 3 January 2023 (see notes on “Ticketing Information” of this release).

With the return of live in-venue performances, complemented by diverse PLUS, outreach and education events, the 51st HKAF opens officially on 17 February 2023 at the Grand Theatre of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, with the Ballet of Slovene National Theatre Maribor’s performance of Radio and Juliet & Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring), and closes on 18 March 2023 at the Concert Hall of Hong Kong Cultural Centre, with the Bamberg Symphony’s performance of a programme including symphonies by Dvořák and Brahms, led by conductor Jakub Hrůša.

PROGRAMMES OF THE 51ST HKAF

(Programmes included in Book 2 of the Programme and Booking Guide)

• In their first Hong Kong appearance since a sensational sold-out performance in 2016, soprano Anna Netrebko and her husband, tenor Yusif Eyvazov, join pianist Rachel Cheung for a recital of music close to their hearts.

• Anna Netrebko has been called the world’s greatest soprano—a superstar with a voice of molten gold. She returns to the HKAF with her husband, tenor Yusif Eyvazov, to perform arias and duets that will sweep you off your feet. The concert is conducted by opera specialist Michelangelo Mazza, and also features mezzo-soprano Carol Lin and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.

• Featuring award-winning stage and screen veteran Wang Wei and seasoned actresses Annie Cheung and Kate Yeung, this deeply moving Loveless Romance written and directed by Cheung Tat-ming is a thoughtful contemplation on death and loss, longing and belonging, exploring the constant push and pull between love and loveless, hope and hopeless.

• A masterfully conceived dance-opera with a stellar cast of outstanding dancers from the Hong Kong Dance Company, renowned opera singers, and a live music ensemble, Love Streams interweaves two HKAF-commissioned chamber operas Heart of Coral and Women Like Us and is possibly the first original production of its kind in Hong Kong.

• Created and developed specifically for Hong Kong by Tamanoir Immersive Studio from France in collaboration with local artists, Jockey Club InnoArts Series: First Steps is a participatory dance in an immersive soundscape with interactive lighting which provides an opportunity for us all to start reconnecting with each other.

• Having reflected on his experiences during the past year, choreographer Mao Wei continues his creative journey in Dance Me to the End of Night, collaborating with Chan Tai-yin as dramaturge. This new production with a newly created set, lighting, music and costume design speaks of the resilience and vulnerability of young people in their “formidable year”.

• Join Janacek’s irrepressible fox-cub Sharp-Ears right here in Hong Kong. A brilliant collaboration between Hong Kong artists and an award-winning UK opera company for an accessible new production of Jockey Club Local Creative Talents Series: Vixen, headphones enable you to become part of the drama. This is opera as you’ve never experienced it before.

• In Hyperreality—an installation concert, Keith Lam partners with composer and musician Fung Lam to create a multimedia experience powered by such unexpected information and accompanied by Four Realities composed by Fung Lam, and Black Angels for Electric String Quartet composed by the Grammy Award-winning George Crumb from the USA. The music is performed live by the Hong Kong Contemporary Music Group and also includes a recorded performance by Cong Quartet.

• Sheng virtuoso Kevin Cheng acknowledges no boundaries for this ancient and versatile instrument. Together with a handpicked team of fellow-musicians, he performs music that embraces both East and West, in a concert as vibrant and as cosmopolitan as Hong Kong itself.

• Inspired by the sounds of flutes from different centuries, Hong Kong historical flautist Tsang Yat-ho presents “Triptych for Flute”—a two-concert journey through three centuries of flute music, played on period-appropriate flutes by a specialist of historically informed performance.

• Four masterpieces of Internationaal Theater Amsterdam (artistic director: Ivo van Hove) have been selected for special film screenings, including The things that pass, Oedipus, Ibsen House and Roman Tragedies. This is a great chance for audiences to immerse themselves in the brilliance of three acclaimed theatre directors through the power of cinema.

Please visit the HKAF website for full programme details and latest updates.

TICKETING INFORMATION

The Programme and Booking Guide (Book 2) is now available at URBTIX outlets. Ticket bookings start at 10am on 3 January 2023. Patrons can book their tickets at URBTIX (online at www.urbtix.hk, by phone at (852) 3166 1288, or at URBTIX outlets). Tickets to performances at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts will also be available through HK Ticketing, while tickets to performances at Freespace are available through the West Kowloon Cultural District Ticket Office.

PLUS PROGRAMMES—More Than Great Performances

After the disruption caused by the pandemic, the Festival PLUS programme returns at the 2023 HKAF with more in-venue activities, continuing its mission to broaden audiences’ Festival experience beyond the stage. Highlights of the 2023 PLUS programme include an exhibition of Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno d’Ulisse which features models of the sets, photos and interviews, showing how the show has grown and changed over the 25 years since it made its debut. And there’s a special recital and lecture demonstration by Sheng Yuan, a historical keyboardist from mainland China who will enrich festivalgoers’ experience at the events that reveal the differences between early and modern pianos. Additionally, there are masterclasses, workshops, PLUS films, post-performance meet-the-artist sessions, and pre-performance talks, to provide deeper engagement with the artists and their works.

More details of PLUS activities will be released on the HKAF website in December.

YOUNG FRIENDS OF THE HONG KONG ARTS FESTIVAL

The Young Friends of the Hong Kong Arts Festival has reached more than 810,000 students since it was founded 30 years ago. This year, Young Friends continues to promote the arts to local secondary and tertiary school students with its rich and diverse line up of school tours, workshops, talks, tickets to Festival performances, as well as arts administration and arts journalism training opportunities.

HKARTSFESTIVAL@TAIKWUN

“HKartsFestival@TaiKwun 2023” is part of the 51st Hong Kong Arts Festival, and is solely sponsored by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust. It will take place at Tai Kwun across two weeks (15-26 February 2023). Programme details will be announced in December. Please visit taikwun.artsfestival.org for more information.

Partner: Tai Kwun—Centre for Heritage and Arts

NO LIMITS

“No Limits”, co-presented by the Hong Kong Arts Festival and The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, aims to create a barrier-free environment enabling artists and audiences to explore and promote inclusiveness through the arts. With the fifth “No Limits” to be held from February to May 2023, you are invited to experience a series of fascinating, in-venue and online programmes which cover film, music, dance and theatre by international and Hong Kong artists of different abilities that defy constraints and boundaries. The project also invests heavily in arts education for young people; diverse arts experiences are designed to nurture students’ interest in the arts, and enable them to share the joy of the arts together with people of different abilities.

A series of exciting programmes and outreach activities will be announced in January 2023. Please visit nolimits.hk for details.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The 51st HKAF is most grateful to its many sponsors, the main ones being: The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, ICBC (Asia), HKR International, Industrial Bank Co. Ltd. Hong Kong Branch, Primasia Foundation, Shun Hing Group, and Sir Edward Youde Memorial Fund; Official Premium Car Partner DCH Mobility, Official Airline Finnair; Official Outdoor Media Partner POADmedia Limited; Official Video Technology Partner TFI Digital Media Limited; Gala Dinner Catering Support Sino Group; and Major Hotel Partner Grand Hyatt Hong Kong.

[Sponsors and Partners]

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, giving equal importance to great traditions and contemporary creations. The Festival also commissions and produces work in theatre, music, chamber opera and contemporary dance by Hong Kong’s own creative talents and emerging artists, many of which have subsequently had successful runs in Hong Kong and overseas. Every year, the Festival also presents more than 250 “PLUS” and educational activities that offer diverse arts experiences to the community as well as 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.

For more information about the Hong Kong Arts Festival, please visit hk.artsfestival.org.

MEDIA ENQUIRIES

For further enquiries, please contact:

• Ms Katy Cheng (Marketing Director): (852) 2828 4930 / katy.cheng@hkaf.org

• Ms Tobie Chan (Chinese Opera, Theatre and Dance): (852) 2828 4931 / tobie.chan@hkaf.org

• Ms Stephanie Cheung and Ms Sally Hui (Music, Opera and Musical):

(852) 2828 4938 / (852) 2828 4934 / stephanie.cheung@hkaf.org / sally.hui@hkaf.org