Nathalie Stutzmann is leading Orfeo 55, a celebrated French ensemble performing instrumental and vocal works of baroque and modern repertoires, both on period and modern instruments. Performances by Orfeo 55 follow a unique format with Stutzmann in two roles— as conductor and vocal soloist.

The ensemble plays a range of 18th century baroque music featuring the Italian opera arias of Vivaldi and the French dances of Lully and Rameau. The selected program, which includes rediscovered pieces of the distinctive repertoire traditionally written for male contralto singers, is now being performed by Stutzmann, a female contralto singer.

Stutzmann is one of the most distinguished female contraltos of her generation specializing in the baroque repertoire. Her interpretation of Handel’s subsidiary operatic arias in the album Heroes from Shadows is noted for the emotional intensity, expressive authenticity, and rich virtuosity of her sumptuous voice.

Orfeo 55 is resident baroque ensemble at Montpellier Opera, and supported by the French Ministry of Culture, Opéra de Monte Carlo, Institut Français and SPEDIDAM. Nathalie Stutzmann is Associate-Artist with the Singer-Polignac foundation in Paris.

The Magic Flute was first performed in France under the title Isis’ Mysteries in 1801, ten years after the Vienna premiere. The title referred to the work’s masonic character and reflected the prevailing interest in Ancient Egypt at that time in Paris. This was the context that brought an anonymous French composer to write a transcription of the overture and the most famous arias for string quartet.

Mozart wrote his fourth quartet at 17. The work is still full of innocence but bears the promise of more and more freedom in musical language. The four instruments can be seen as opera personae and express operatic emotions, a revolution which will be at its height in Mozart’s last works and more specifically in his last 10 quartets.

We will finish the concert with Debussy’s impressionist masterpiece, his string quartet opus 10. In this odyssey, players have to go beyond their instruments’ usual sounds, describing natural phenomena and elements and imitating other instruments (like the Javanese gamelan in the second movement). An invitation to a journey of colors, modes, textures and exotic rhythms that unheard of in the string quartet repertoire.

Piano performance with Live sand-painting
2018 EDITION
The Butterfly Lovers is one of China’s Four Great Folktales.In 2006, it was inscribed in the first batch of The National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of China by the Ministry of Culture. Young and well-acclaimed French pianists Duo Jatekok will perform together with Hoi Chiu, the renowned Hong Kong sand painting artist, and offer an creative interpretation of this Chinese folk legend.

The story is about a tragic love romance of a pair of lovers, Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai. Zhu, disguises herself as a male student, and meet Liang at school. They study together for three years and become very close friends. One day Liang finally discover Zhu’s true identity and they fall in love. They are devoted to each other and they make a vow to stay together “till death do us part”. However, Zhu’s parents have already arranged for her to marry another man. Liang is heartbroken when he hears the news and his health gradually deteriorates. He becomes critically ill and dies afterwards. On the day of Zhu’s marriage, the wedding procession passes by Liang’s grave. Zhu throws herself into the grave to join Liang. Their spirits emerge in the form of a pair of butterflies and fly away together, never to be separated again.

The show consists of piano performance of classical music and a live sand drawing of illustrations which the audience will find fascinating. Selected classical music pieces include:
Debussy – Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faune
Poulenc – Sonata for 2 Pianos
Trotignon – 3 Pieces
Debussy – Clair de Lune (arranged by Henry Woolett for 4 hands)

True festival of youth and dance
2018 EDITION
Eight hip hop dancers revisit the successful ballet Les Forains in 1945, as a tribute to this “true festival of youth and dance” (Jean Cocteau). The story about wandering artists doing their fabulous routine in a fair is the very expression of a life taking back its natural rights after a world war, and it still fascinates the performing artists of today. Anthony Égéa from Compagnie Rêvolution tries to restore the poetic dimension of composer Henri Sauguet’s work, with the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong playing the ballet score, mixing with DJ Frank2Louise’s electronic music.

Such a combination of classics and hip hop, ballet and acrobatics, deliver a real Urban Ballet that evokes the cutting-edge parade of a circus, and a striking show that provides a sharing moment for all, when our minds want to wander, to travel and to dream.

Each performance will be followed by a sharing session with the artists.

After L’Anoure in 1995, Snow White in 2008 and Siddharta in 2010, Angelin Preljocaj is continuing his exploration of fairy tales by choosing, as he likes to do, a direction so far unexplored in his work, that of the traditional tales of Asia which are, rich sources of great poetic power.

Thus, The Painting on the Wall plunges the reader into the fantastical world of Chinese tales and reveals the ‘supernatural’ power of the art of painting. If different readings are possible, the ideas of illusion and transcendence are omnipresent in the work. Angelin Preljocaj has chosen to immerse himself in the heart of this unusual world. Without literally telling its story, he retains the Chinese tale as the source of a more contemporary adaptation.

Angelin Preljocaj harnesses the power of his imagination to transpose the story’s plot into a space at the crossing of cultures. He preserves of course, the essence of the tale and the symbolism that it evokes.

Georges Bizet’s Carmen is opera for everyone. Combining Spanish passion with French lyricism, it has music that stays in the mind and rhythms that pound in the heart for days afterwards. Don José throws over everything, career, honour, family, even his childhood sweetheart Micaëla, for a doomed love affair with the gypsy Carmen.

Carmen, one of the most performed operas in the world, is a timeless story about passion, destiny but above all freedom — liberty! — and one unforgettable woman who lives and loves by it, a man consumed by her, and the woman who tries to save him.

This new production from Opera Hong Kong gives Carmen a modern sheen with an innovative nested rotating set, and features four renowned artists Jean-François Borras, Giancarlo Monsalve, Varduhi Abrahamyan, Marie Karall, Vittorio Vitelli and Jean-Kristof Bouton — who have sung at leading opera houses from the Metropolitan Opera House, Royal Opera House in London, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma and Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow — making their Chinese debuts.

Salonières were women who served as hostesses and led the conversations in salons – gatherings of artists, writers, musicians and thinkers. The music in salons was mainly written as commissions or dedications, or with the aim of being premièred. Salonières introduced their audiences to new ideas and ways of life through happenings at salons.

Cécile Chaminade (1857-1944) was a French composer who dedicated her early life to music, but turned to hospital service in her later years. Most of her music was performed in salons.

The Chinese poet Tao Yuanming (365-427) was famous for his reclusive, pastoral life of drinking and farming. Yet his direct, free-floating style of poetry was an escape from, and a reaction against, the mainstream of thinking in his time, and it led him to withdraw from civil service after he began his poetic life.

In this programme showcasing the piano and vocal music of Chaminade, and inspired by Tao Yuanming, soprano Florence Cheng and pianist Cynthia Chan, together with dancers Chi-yu Hua and David Leung, will present a cross-disciplinary arts performance depicting nature, people and life, in the hope of prompting thoughts about living a poetic life and pursuing an ideal spiritual mind.

As fluffy and variable and colourful as the butterfly, French music is sometimes described as elegant, edgy, beautiful, and sometimes abstract and ahead of its time. Just like the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly, French music has undergone centuries of development, and people have loved it at every stage of its transformation.

In this concert, Le Gai Ensemble will present delicate music full of flavour and spices by the French composers Gounod (19th century) and Francaix (20th century), plus some newly arranged pop and jazz music. Come and experience the stylistic changes in the literature of French music. Dress up in keeping with the theme of the butterfly and enjoy a drink and some delightful music!

In his new series entitled “You Man”, Hom Nguyen continues with his introspection and observations of society. Children and adults, from school life to society, in literature, movies and mobile devices, human life seems to be getting better with the development of technology and the improvement of material conditions.

I have traveled in and out of Taiwan and around the world for all my life. Some things have changed while others remain a constant. My surroundings and my age have changed, and in turn, so have my subjects and artistic language. The one constant is my philosophy towards art. Today, I have returned to my childhood home – Taiwan while still frames of past memories and sentiments include the Temple Decor, Symbol Life, Seasons, Manikin, Silence, and Dreams series. After over six decades of art creation, I have realized that the world acts like a large mirror for self-reflection, thus enabling discovery of the different cultural backgrounds to truly understand one’s own path. Only then was I able to experience life and build my individual style and ideas. – Liao Shiou-Ping