Iraganeko Produkzioaren Iritziak
3The designs play a key role in achieving this. Tsang Man-tung's sets and Henky Chan's video – including a lovely backdrop of Victoria
Following an excellent La Traviata October in 2022, Opera Hong Kong this month brought us another heroine dying of consumption in a stunning production of Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème. The story, directed by Hong Kong theatre luminary Tang Shu-wing, has been transposed from 19th-century Paris to contemporary Hong Kong and the concept works remarkably well. The impact of this was heightened by the cast of outstandingly talented young Hong Kong singers at the performance I saw. One of the things that makes La Bohème such a favourite among operas is its evocation of everyday life and of ordinary people experiencing happiness and sorrow.
Opera Hong Kong has done itself and the city proud with its new production of Verdi’s La Traviata. Magnificently sung and superbly acted by a world-class cast led by Venera Gimadieva, one of today’s most celebrated Violettas, and accompanied by the Hong Kong Philharmonic under leading opera conductor Renato Palumbo, this performance would have graced the stage of any great opera house. It shows that Hong Kong still merits a place on the international cultural map despite having languished so long in the doldrums of Covid-19. Based on The Lady of the Camellias by Alexandre Dumas, La Traviata is the story of Parisian courtesan Violetta, who gives up a life of luxury for one of pastoral simplicity (which she is paying for by secretly selling her possessions) for love of the innocent, ardent young Alfredo
