Satyajit Ray’s classic movie retold through original live music
Goopy and Bagha are not the most talented of musicians but their passion for what they do attracts the attention of the King of Ghosts, who grants them supernatural powers to literally transfix audiences. During their wondrous adventure in search of listeners, the singing-drumming duo uses the power of music to defeat wizards and win the hearts of two princesses. Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne, a vintage fantasy film written and directed by Honorary Oscar for Lifetime Achievement recipient Satyajit Ray, was lauded as “India’s most innovative movie” when first released in 1969. In this cinematic concert production, composer Soumik Datta, dubbed “British sarod maestro” and “a unique artist in the vanguard of new British music”, weaves Indian sarod, orchestral and percussive sounds into a sonorous new score. The enchanting melodies and rich aural textures capture the essence and also breathe new life into Ray’s iconic film, projected on a giant screen simultaneously with the live music performance.

King of Ghosts, commissioned by Edinburgh Mela Festival, saw Datta team up with renowned Austrian conductor Johannes Berauer, award-winning Irish bodhrán player Cormac Byrne, and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra for its world première. The well-received production was subsequently performed with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the annual Southbank Centre’s Alchemy Festival to critical acclaim. For this performance, the creative trio collaborates with the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong to innovatively convey the film’s profound message: that music and the arts have the efficacy to overcome social barriers, evil deeds, and war.

Ensemble intercontemporain was founded in 1976 by the late French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez, rising to become one of the world’s most revered groups specialising in contemporary music, and the first permanent ensemble of its kind.

The group’s dexterous musicians deliver their 20th and 21st-century repertoire with authoritative “clarity and precision”, according to the Financial Times. Now helmed by music director and conductor Matthias Pintscher, they continue to explore fresh realms, premièring innovative compositions, extending technique, and performing challenging works requiring exceptional skills.

In this long-overdue Hong Kong début, the Ensemble performs Schoenberg’s revolutionary Chamber Symphony No. 1, also a source of inspiration for Ligeti’s densely constructed Chamber Concerto. Donatoni’s Tema, one of the group’s favourites, is a powerful organic work, recycling certain materials from the composer’s previous work in line with his perspective that each piece is linked to the next in a continuous oeuvre. The programme also features newer pieces, including Les Danses interrompues by Mantovani, Whirling Tissue of Light by Pintscher, and Lachrymae by Hong Kong composer Charles Kwong.

A moonlit sea stirred by the wind. Pine needles crisscross and intertwine. The lingering spirits of sisters Matsukaze and Murasame remain entangled in the human realm, where they relate their poignant love story to a Buddhist monk… World-renowned for cross-disciplinary collaborations, German choreographer Sasha Waltz fuses minimalist eastern theatre with textured western opera in a fluid choreographic reinterpretation of Japanese Noh classic Matsukaze. The ethereal outcome is a radically new and creative experience, praised as an “unforgettable total work of art”.

Contemporary classical composer Toshio Hosokawa, acclaimed for his original envisioning of Japanese music, here distills the musical essence of Noh theatre in this modern dance-imbued rendition. In doing so, he unleashes both the painfulness and purity of Nature through a crystallised blend of the traditional and avant-garde that encompasses vocal, orchestral and even silent elucidation. As the enigmatic tale unfolds, singers also become dancers entwined in an eerily apocalyptic landscape. At times, a diaphanous web enmeshes the performers beyond time and space while reality is bounded by a wooden frame. In such ways, the vivid stagecraft serves as if a Noh bridge, crossing from now to the after life and taking souls back to the mortal world for ultimate liberation.

Ancient Indian epic The Mahabharata re-envisioned
Love and hate conjoined in a tumultuous work that cleanses the soul

Akram Khan, winner of the UK’s prestigious Olivier Award for DESH in 2012, launched his latest production, Until the Lions, at the London Roundhouse to great critical acclaim in January this year. Based on his ceaseless fascination with the classic Sanskrit poem, The Mahabharata, the celebrated Bangladeshi dancer-choreographer draws Amba, an unsung heroine in the male-dominated narrative, into the spotlight. Swirling limbs amid percussive dance sequences compellingly capture the transformation of the kidnapped princess as she moves from innocence to outrage and yearning, her tragic journey to self-immolation, and eventual reincarnation as Shikhandi, an androgynous warrior who seeks vengeance in a showdown with her abductor.

As haunting harmonies and vocals suffuse the performance with a ritualistic aura, the trio of dancers summon up breath-taking technique in an enthralling display of energy and emotional intensity. Together with Karthika Nar’s thought-provoking scenario, Tim Yip’s mistily symbolic ringed tree stump set and Michael Hulls’ luminescent lighting, a dense and timeless tale of women’s oppression and resistance to such a fate is stunningly drawn forth.

“An astonishing work” ── ArtAsiaPacific

“Strict, beautiful” ── The New York Times

Ryoji Ikeda, lauded as “the master of minimalist electronica”, is renowned for utilising the beauty of mathematical precision to draw out the essence of sound and image, igniting a completely new visceral and aesthetic experience. Over the past two decades, the celebrated Japanese composer and digital artist has been actively exploring a wide range of creative formats, including live performance, installation and audio recording. Ikeda has collaborated with prominent artists and groups, such as Japan’s avant-garde multimedia collective Dumb Type, choreographer William Forsythe and architect Toyo Ito, and received numerous international awards, including the Golden Nica Award, Giga-Hertz Award and Prix Ars Electronica Collide@CERN 2014.

superposition was commissioned by Festival d’Automne à Paris and held its world première at the Centre Pompidou. Inspired by the world of quantum mechanics, Ikeda observes nature from an infinitesimal perspective in this work. To Ikeda, nature is everywhere, from the microscopic to the mighty, and try as we might to understand it, the unimaginable vastness will always keep secrets beyond the grasp of the human mind. Unusually for Ikeda, this astonishing theatrical concert features two performers who play various non-musical instruments and interact with 21 video screens of different sizes. Orchestrating sonic and visual media into a mind-tingling piece, the pair integrates physical phenomena, mathematical concepts, human control and randomness into an awe-inspiring symphony of the universe.

Electronic Music, Morphing Visuals, Multimedia Arts Experimenting on the relationship of language and the world

Wittgenstein:
“The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.”
“A philosopher who is not taking part in discussions is like a boxer who never goes into the ring.”
“He who lives in the present lives in eternity.”

Wittgenstein is one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th Century. In his workTractatus Logico-Philosophicus (Latin for “Logico-Philosophical Treatise”), he puts forth that if we could understand language, then how the world was created could be explained. Mathias Woo, in collaboration wtih cross-disciplinary artists, would recreate Wittgenstein’s world of the logic of language; with comic master Li Chi Tak’s unique images and symbols restructuring Wittgenstein’s philosophical treatise; Steve Hui’s new language of electronic synth music for theatre; and German image artist Tobias Gremmler overlapping reality and imagination with severed, twisting and collaged images…entering the world of existence and eternity in the next century.

In this absorbing multimedia dance work, audience members – each equipped with 3D glasses and headphone and holding a silicon heart that simultaneously transmits the performer’s heartbeat – truly connect with the artist’s inner and outer worlds. Inspired by the philosophy of the Japanese tea ceremony, and drawing on stunning visuals and choreography, the show intimately conveys a heartfelt encounter.

A ground-breaking tragi-comedy exploring
the nature of humanity and divinity

Commissioned by the New Vision Arts Festival
World première

Prometheus, a Titan deity, helps Zeus become supreme ruler of the Olympian gods. However, Zeus is enraged when Prometheus disobeys his orders and steals fire to give to the people on Earth, propelling them towards civilisation. In retribution, Zeus chains Prometheus to a cliff in the Caucasus to suffer the extremes of biting cold and blazing sun; and the agony caused by an eagle pecking out his liver each day. When Prometheus refuses to reveal who will overthrow Zeus, even greater punishment ensues…

Prometheus Bound was originally penned by Greek playwright Aeschylus (524-456 BC), also referred to as “the father of tragedy”. In this production, Li Liuyi, hailed as one of China’s most influential theatre directors today, unearths the absurdism in the epic play, delving into the lives, behaviours, thoughts and personalities of “gods” while taking an ironic look at the making of a “hero”. Colourful and satirical, the reinterpretation offers a fresh take on the ancient tragedy.

Drawing on both Chinese philosophy and traditional opera, Li’s renowned “pure drama” theory places emphasis on the performer and characteristics of the human spirit. He launched the “Li Liuyi – Made in China” project in 2012, tracing the roots of civilisation by returning to the origins of theatre and human nature. Antigone and Oedipus the King were presented at Singapore’s Huayi – Chinese Festival of Arts and the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing respectively, garnering acclaim for their minimalist and poetic stage design embracing Chinese and Western aesthetics, past and present. In this programme, Li once again teams up with National Class One actor Lin Xiyue, twice nominated for a Plum Blossom Award, stage designer Gong Xun, a Wenhua Award winner, and Oscar-winning costume designer Emi Wada, to reconstruct the classic through his cutting-edge approach.

In this boundary-pushing show, local lion dance masters link up with young choreographers from the mainland, Hong Kong and Macao in a fascinating encounter that ingeniously explores the relationship between traditional and contemporary dance.

WORLD PREMIERE

“Thou liest, malignant thing!”

The People’s Court is now in Session. All rise! What really happened when Miranda met Caliban and Caliban met Miranda and Prospero didn’t approve. Visit the island. Hear the testimonies. Explore the evidence. TV Judge Ariel Storm gives Caliban a chance to give his side of the story that led him to be branded throughout history as some kind of monster. Join the jury and vote. Guilty or Not Guilty. You decide!

Part of the British Council’s Shakespeare Lives and inspired by The Tempest, Birds of Paradise Theatre Company have been working with deaf and disabled artists in Hong Kong and the UK to create a thrilling courtroom drama. Miranda and Caliban: The Making of a Monster explores the meaning of “home” and relationship with “the others”. It will be performed in Hong Kong and Glasgow simultaneously for both a live and digital audience.