World Cultures Festival Brings Nordic Arts to the Limelight

Description

The festival’s programmes engages audiences on the past, present and future through inclusive, people-oriented themes and a focus on key social issues through various forms of art.

An operatic version of Ingmar Bergman’s noted film Autumn Sonata opens the festival. Converted into a two-act opera, the work by Finnish composer Sebastian Fagerlund adds an intense musical angst to the raw truths bared in the tale of an inharmonious relationship between a concert pianist and her daughters.

Human nature is examined in an unconventional Norwegian ballet, Ghosts, which reinterprets a play by Henrik Ibsen for modern times. With original music by Sigur Rós, the Icelandic contemporary dance production The Best of Darkness wrestles with the inner vulnerabilities of humans. In Breath, hearing-impaired Finnish rapper Signmark channels themes of equality and inclusiveness in his songs and music.

Sweden’s Limits by Cirkus Cirkör brilliantly deploys the techniques of cirque nouveau, stretching physical frontiers to reflect on the global refugee crisis. The Danish multimedia production NeoArctic takes audiences to a visual-music journey addressing an ecosystem emergency.

Finland’s Arctic Odyssey experiments with the eclectic arts of indigenous people from diverse regions of the far north. The Sounds of Finland connects innovation and tradition in a concert centred on the zither-like kantele, an instrument with a history of more than 1000 years. In addition, Nordic and local groups are going to present an upbeat sonic celebration spotlighting women singers in the Nordic & Hong Kong Band Sound Gala.

Of highlight this year is the Nordic Café series that turns the Hong Kong Cultural Centre’s Studio Theatre into an informal salon for the enjoyment of chamber music, play reading and improvisational theatre while attendees comfortably enjoy snacks and drinks.

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