The Cultural Presentations Section offers music, dance, Chinese opera, theatre and multimedia performing arts programmes throughout the year. These programmes, ranging from the traditional to the cutting edge, offer the best of local and international performances. In 2010-11, more than 1 000 events took place, attracting altogether about 425 000 spectators.
The Chinese Opera Festival 2010, envisaged as the first of an annual cultural event, was held from June to July for a span of 48 days. The Festival was designed to promote the art of xiqu, or ‘Chinese traditional theatre’, showcasing a variety of operatic genres from different parts of China. Apart from stage performances, the Festival also featured a variety of extension activities in the form of talks, exhibitions and symposia to give the public a deeper understanding of Chinese operatic arts and thus enhance their appreciation.
To commemorate the 200th birth anniversary of Chopin and Schumann, the Department organised concerts featuring world-renowned musicians, including Krystian Zimerman, Piotr Anderszewski and Mischa Maisky, and local artists. The finale of the Chopin/Schumann Series was a mini-Piano Marathon of Schumann’s works by 29 young pianists from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.
The Cao Yu Drama Festival, held to mark the centenary of the birth of the Chinese dramatist, featured many of his famous works by both local and visiting theatre groups. His Peking Man by The Beijing People’s Art Theatre was a highlight.
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The classic Tears on the Desolate Mountain was one of the performances at the Chinese Opera Festival 2010, at which the virtuoso skills of the Cheng School of Peking opera were on show. |
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A scene from Peking Man by the famous Beijing People’s Art Theatre. The play, which portrays the eclipse and demise of a prosperous feudal family in old China, was a performance in the Cao Yu Drama Festival, held to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Cao Yu, one of China’s great dramatists. |
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Twenty nine young pianists from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts performed the music of Chopin and Schumann in a three-hour Piano Marathon on Music Day at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre. |
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Other leading programmes during the year included: the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra; Sir James Galway; Emerson Quartet; Academy of St Martin in the Fields with Joshua Bell; the Duke Ellington Orchestra; dance productions Whisper of Flowers and Songs of the Wanderers by Cloud Gate Dance Theatre from Taiwan, and Merce Cunningham Dance Company from the United States; the Boundless Multi-Media Series featuring an array of avant garde works by international and local multi-media performers; and opera such as Puccini’s La Bohème by Opera Hong Kong and Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore by Musica Viva, both featuring international and local singers.
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The St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra performed a variety of Russian music under the baton of Artistic Director Yuri Temrikanov. |
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Dancers leap and whirl, carpeting the stage with thousands of red petals during the Hong Kong premiere of Whisper of Flowers by Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre. |
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The Merce Cunningham Dance Company presents Nearly 90² during its Legacy Tour to celebrate the achievements of the acclaimed choreographer. |
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The LCSD has long supported local artists and arts groups by offering them numerous performing opportunities in thematic series of various art forms. They included: the New Force in Motion Series showcasing budding local choreographers; the Re-run Run Show Series for local arts groups to build up their own repertoires to re-stage popular productions; and the Playwrights Scheme which supported young and distinguished theatre playwrights.
While Our Music Talents Series provides performance platforms for local musicians with potential, the Young Cantonese Opera Artists Series offers an opportunity to young Cantonese opera artists and young professional groups. Large-scale free events featuring budding local artists and groups such as the eighth Cantonese Opera Day and the third Dance Day were organised to popularise the arts and enhance their access to the community.
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The third Dance Day at Tsuen Wan Town Hall featured a fun-filled spectrum of dance performances by renowned local dancers and enthusiasts. |
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To further support the growth and development of local artists, the LCSD continues to explore new performance venues, apart from those under its management. Under the Live! At Museums Series, heritage sites such as Dr Sun Yat-sen Museum, Flagstaff House Museum of Tea Ware, Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence and the University Museum and Art Gallery of The University of Hong Kong became platforms for specially curated programmes designed to harmonise with the particular ambience of these places. Notable examples were Schumann’s Love in Words and Music at Dr Sun Yat-sen Museum, combining piano and narration of love letters, and the Guangdong Music Series at the University Museum and Art Gallery of The University of Hong Kong, with demonstration lectures to promote the appreciation of this genre of music. While strengthening support for the local arts sector, this new initiative also demonstrated the Department’s effort to arouse public’s awareness of our cultural heritage.
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Music lovers enjoy Schumann’s piano music, combining recitations of his letters, during Schumann’s Love in Words and Music at Dr Sun Yat-sen Museum. |
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The Department also continued to organise joint projects with various Consulates-General and cultural organisations, including the Pearl River Delta Culture Summit. Such sponsored and jointly-presented events helped foster cultural exchange and enhance Hong Kong's reputation as Asia's events capital.
