Predchádzajúce výrobné recenzie
3Hong Kong’s Musica Viva has incrementally moved from one full opera production per year—in December—to two. If this recent production of Mozart’s comic masterpiece is any indication, the smaller production in late September featuring entirely local singers has, over the past couple of years, matured and is hitting its stride. These productions have tended to concentrate on the lighter side of the repertoire—the past two years have featured comic operas by Gaetano Donizetti. Le Nozze di Figaro, while a comedy, is not necessarily funny: it runs considerably longer and, Mozart being Mozart, lends itself to multiple interpretations. The work was here abridged to just about two hours and the cast, particularly a perky Phoebe Tam as the maid Susanna, tilted the performance toward the humor. Oscar Droscha’s Count Almaviva had the wandering eye (and hands) that the role demands, but was not the irredeemably odious character he can sometimes be. Musica Viva’s productions often have good chemistry—ensemble performances where the whole is greater than the mere sum of the parts—and this Marriage of Figaro followed the pattern. But even ensemble performances can deliver up individual surprises: soprano Vicki Wu lit up the stage in the small part of Barberina. She will be a singer worth watching.
Opera for everyone – that’s the message behind Waitress on Top, an adaptation of the Italian comic operetta La Serva Padrona which will be performed later this month as part of the new Italia Mia Festival. Presented by the Italian Cultural Institute in Hong Kong, the operetta takes Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s 1733 opera and resets it in an Italian restaurant in Hong Kong. “We thought it would be nice to bring this opera to Hong Kong and do an adaptation (set) in Hong Kong,” says Clemente Contestabile, the consul general of Italy in Hong Kong. “The production will feature dialogue in English and Cantonese, the subject itself is funny, the script is light and people will laugh and enjoy it very much.” Contestabile intends to show an opera every year as part of the Italia Mia festival, which will take place every October and November. In a bid to encourage local and younger audiences, tickets to the Oct 29 performance at Chai Wan’s Youth Square Y Theatre are free of charge. “The Italia Mia Festival is for everyone in Hong Kong and we want to reach out to the local community,” Contestabile says. Waitress on Top stars Hong Kong soprano Etta Fung as Serpina in a production that is deliberately intimate, featuring just two singers (Fung and Isaac Droscha as Uberto), alongside music director Marco Iannelli who doubles in a non-singing role. The finale includes three arias from Donizetti’s Don Pasquale to help, as Iannelli puts it, “make (the ending) a little bigger”, rather than going with the more subtle ending of the original opera. Together with the show’s director Peter Gordon — who was named Cavaliere dell’Ordine della Stella d’Italia earlier this year for his contributions to Italian opera — Ianneli looked for a cast that would represent Hong Kong’s mix of cultures. “We’re trying to propose to the audience this mix of cultures in Hong Kong and that this is what makes Hong Kong a beautiful and unique place,” Iannelli says. “Etta will use Cantonese to help really set the action in Hong Kong.” Contemporary themes Finding ways to make opera accessible and to engage diverse audiences seems to be a common goal among Hong Kong’s growing number of opera companies. Over the next two months, several operas will be performed on stages across Hong Kong and Macao, showcasing a growing interest and demand for the art form. In September, Musica Viva staged two sold-out performances of Le Nozze di Figaro at Hong Kong City Hall. Featuring an all-Hong Kong cast, including Sammy Chien as Figaro, Droscha as Count Almaviva and Phoebe Tam as Susanna, the opera highlighted local talent and was the first of two productions this season by the company’s director-general Kingman Lo. Next up is Franz Lehár’s The Merry Widow, an operetta in three acts which will be performed from Dec 6 to 8 at the Hong Kong City Hall. Opera Hong Kong’s Rigoletto is playing at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre through Sunday, Oct 13, also as part of the Italia Mia Festival. The production is by Fondazione Teatro Lirico di Cagliari and stars Roberto Frontali in the title role. “Rigoletto is one of the most performed operas in the world,” says Opera Hong Kong’s artistic director Warren Mok. “The plot is incredible: the evilness of mankind, quest for power and its relationship with the lust and sexual abuse, violence, injustice still resonate (with today’s) audience. Verdi’s music is a perfect match to the plot and its characterization.” Frontali is known for his Verdi roles and received strong praise for his Rigoletto earlier this year at the Metropolitan Opera. The rest of the cast put together by Mok includes Anton Keremidtchiev and Audrey Luna along with Hong Kong singers, including Joyce Wong, Carol Lin and Bobbie Zhang. “It’s a strong Rigoletto,” Mok says. “We bring in the entire production from Italy and also their design team. We are glad to have Pier Francesco Maestrini as the director and Paolo Olmi, a highly respected conductor, can no doubt do a wonderful job to reveal Verdi’s powerful music.”
Written when the composer was just 12, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s La Finta Semplice qualifies as a real rarity. After a performance the year following its composition, it dropped from the repertoire and was not staged again until modern times. That Musica Viva’s recent production at Hong Kong’s City Hall was a premiere seems beyond doubt, the only question being over how large a geographical area The opera dates from 1768 when Leopold Mozart and his son were spending the year in Vienna. When the Emperor suggested that young Wolfgang, already renowned throughout Europe as a musical prodigy, might write an opera, his first, for performance in Vienna, Leopold chose La finta semplice (which might be translated as “The Fake Ingénue”), a Goldoni comedy which had been set to music and performed in Venice only four years before. After some further work by Florentine librettist Marco Coltellini, the not-yet-teen composer produced an opera fully three acts long. But all of Leopold’s plans fell through. It seems that certain members of Vienna’s musical establishment were unhappy about being possibly upstaged by a mere boy. Rumors were put about that the real composer was the father; the impresario found reasons to delay the production and the artists began to worry about their reputations. Leopold, alleging a conspiracy, pulled the plug and the pair returned to Salzburg, where the opera was finally performed the next year. It must be acknowledged that La Finta Semplice is not a great opera, but it is an astonishingly good one for a 12-year-old. Mozart’s older rivals had reason to be concerned. The story of multiple love affairs, deception, intricate plots, clueless yet overbearing men, put-upon and clever women is the sort of rom-com produced by the dozens in 18th-century Europe. And yet one can hear Mozart finding his voice, one that will be heard again, more developed and mature, in such later works as Le nozze di Figaro and Così fan tutte. Vicky Wu as Ninetta Vicky Wu as Ninetta Opera from Hong Kong’s leading companies now comes in two varieties: relatively large productions with, on the whole, international leads, and smaller productions cast entirely with local singers. One of the joys of these latter productions is the chance to hear fresh voices of young singers who might just be going places. Last night did not disappoint. In both voice and bearing, Vicky Wu sparkled as the maid Ninetta and Valentina Tao flirted and floated her way through the visiting Baroness Rosina’s high notes. Opening night was anchored by the (only relatively) more veteran mezzo Samantha Chong as Giacinta, the somewhat self-effacing sister of the two off-the-wall brothers Cassandro and Polidoro, Collette Lam as Rosina as Phoebe Tam as the maid Ninetta. As is often the case, the women get the better music and the more interesting characters, but Henry Ngan imbued the officer (and Rosina’s brother) Fracasso with some personality and was a dab hand with a sword. The casts were rounded out with Denis Lau and Bonnie Liu sharing the roles of Fracasso and Giacinta respectively; Law Kwok Ho and Frankie Fung shared the role of the elder brother Cassandro with Frankie Liu and Samson Chow alternated as the younger Polidoro. Alex Kwok and Pan Lo shared the role of Simone, Fracasso’s soldier sidekick who woos Ninetta. The opera was performed in the smaller of the two stages of Hong Kong City’s Hall, whose more intimate space suited the work. The simple staging, dominated by symmetrical planes parallel to stage, provided atmosphere without being intrusive.
