A word from Director: Lo King Man

 

Gaetano Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore (The Elixir of Love) represents the finest achievement of Italian comic opera during the first half of the nineteenth century, the acknowledged Golden Age of bel canto style of vocal performance and composition.  It is in every sense a work of genius of the first order.

 

Its music is a continuous flow of mellifluous melodies of exquisite beauty.  Its action fast-moving, full of delightful twists and turns and surprises.  Its structure is compact; with its plot compressed into a single day’s event.  Its characters are lively, human, and deeply moving.  Above all, it is a wonderful fusion of hilarious humour and tender romance.

 

L’Elisir d’Amore offers an unforgettable experience of artistic refinement and uninhibited enjoyment so rare in the entire genre of western opera.

 

Colette Lam will be singing the role "Giannetta" on 21 and 22 Jan at 8pm

 

A Comic Opera in 2 Acts
Sung in Italian with Chinese and English Surtitles
A Musica Viva Production

 

Dates & Times: 21-23 January 2011 (Fri to Sun) 8pm, 22 January 2011 (Sat) 3pm

Venue: HK City Hall Concert Hall

Tickets: $120-600 available from all URBTIX outlets

 

 

 

On the birthday of the inaugural United States of America President George Washington, 22nd February 1784, an American vessel weighing 360 tones set sail for China, opening the first trade route between the two countries. The $120,000 required for making this vessel, named “The Empress of China,” was the co-investment by several American merchants. Recognized as one of the “Chinese-American Cultural Pioneers” along with other illustrious figures such as Yo-Yo Ma, Hong Kong Repertory Theatre’s second Artistic Director Joanna Chan presents a bilingual play, The Empress of China, in Hong Kong. Chan’s production features HKRep company members Lin Xiawei, Wang Wei, guest actors Andrei Drooz (from New York), Gregory Rivers in a cast of more than twenty HKRep and overseas guest actors. The play is performed in Cantonese and English with Chinese and English surtitles.

 

This play is based on the first voyage of THE EMPRESS OF CHINA. Blending significant historical figures and fictional characters, it examines the initial encounter of two peoples of drastically diverse experience and exceedingly different ways of looking at themselves and at the world, with their hopes and aspirations, good will and wariness, misconceptions and biases, miscommunication and frustrations, but always with mutual fascination and admiration that continue to this very day. In the forbidden encounter between the dashing Supercargo of THE EMPRESS OF CHINA, Samuel Shaw (played by New York guest actor Andrei Drooz), and the young beautiful Purple Lotus, daughter of a rich Chinese merchant (played by HKRep actress Lin Xia Wei), a common language was found in their belief in trust, honor and integrity.

Andrew Swift will be playing the role "Captain John Green".