Passion and Revenge: Chamber Opera ‘Beauty and Sadness’ Premieres in Hong Kong

Description

Beauty and Sadness resides in a world of memory and imagination, of fiction and reality. It explores the relationships between a successful novelist, an accomplished classical painter, and the latter’s student, a beautiful abstract artist with a wild and unruly heart. In this tale of intense passion, pure love, jealousy and revenge, Kawabata evokes all the beauty and sadness that comes with the human condition, of what it means to love and be loved.

Based on Japanese author Yasunari Kawabata’s 1964 novel Utsukushisa To Kanashimi To, this contemporary opera features an internationally prestigious creative team, including leading British opera librettist David Pountney, Russian composer Elena Langer, Hungarian conductor Gergely Madaras, Academy Award-winning designer Tim Yip, as well as lighting designer Peter Mumford. A young and vibrant cast is led by Korean soprano Pureum Jo, Hong Kong soprano Etta Fung, Korean countertenor Siman Chung, Chinese American mezzo-soprano Yanyu Guo, and Hong Kong actor Anson Lam.

Please note that the English performance will be supplemented by Chinese surtitles. The performance will be companioned by a Q&A session with the creative team on 7 April 2019.