Music

A lavish operatic spectacle

For almost half a century, the HKAF has brought visionary new works to Hong Kong. This stunning co-production with the San Francisco Opera marks another milestone, which is bound to be a highlight of the Festival’s 45th anniversary.

Based on the masterpiece by Cao Xueqin, Dream of the Red Chamber is considered one of China’s four great classical novels. It details the lives of members of the Jia Clan, whose good fortune is assured when one of its daughters becomes an Imperial concubine. When she falls from power, their decline follows swiftly. Central to this drama is the love triangle between the young nobleman, Bao Yu, and two very different women: one his spiritual soulmate, the other a worldly beauty.

The composer is celebrated Chinese-American musician Bright Sheng, who, along with Tony Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang, has adapted the novel into a two-act opera with English language libretto. Iconic Taiwanese director Stan Lai joins forces with Tim Yip, the Academy Award-winning designer of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, to stage this visionary work. Maestro Muhai Tang, acclaimed for his “exquisite attention to color and detail” (Opera Today), will conduct the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and an exceptional cast of Asia’s finest singers including Hong Kong’s own Amanda Li making her debut in a major international production. Hong Kong is the first Asian city to see this new opera after its September 2016 premiere in San Francisco.