HONG KONG – The 53rd Hong Kong Arts Festival (HKAF) is set to take place in February and March 2025, with more than 1,300 outstanding international and local artists in over 125 performances of more than 45 programmes.

The Festival Opening performance features the exceptional Orchestra of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna under the baton of revered Maestro Donato Renzetti, performing the music of Rossini and Mendelssohn. This wonderful musical partnership will also perform a second concert featuring a family friendly programme organised around Ravel’s charming Mother Goose Suite. Renowned conductor Lü Jia will lead the China National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra for an evening of sonic fireworks and untamed passion with award-winning soprano Song Yuanming. World-class pianist Zhang Haochen joins them in this dazzling display of Franz Liszt’s imagination.

Other programmes in the lineup include opera, presenting two extraordinary and vastly different opera performances—one is a re-creation of the original production from 150 years ago, while the other is a brand-new interpretation and showcase of the modern repertoire.Commemorating the 150th anniversary of the premiere of Bizet’s Carmen and its composer’s death, a unique co-production by Bru Zane France, Opéra Royal – Château de Versailles Spectacles, Opéra de Rouen Normandie and Palazzetto Bru Zane – Centre de musique romantique française recreates the first staging of Bizet’s enduringly popular opera. Based on the original production notes and designs, this is a rare chance to experience the pinnacle of Romantic opera as it was seen and heard in 1875.Based on operas and vocal works composed during the past century, Klangforum Wien and Needcompany’s Amopera deconstructs and mixes various pieces to create an entirely new work, exploring every aspect of human love from the deepest lows to the most ecstatic highs, showcasing the musical highlights of the modern repertoire.

On the Chinese Opera front, The Shanghai Yue Opera House, one of China’s foremost performing arts groups, will delight Hong Kong audiences with four productions starring leading artists in celebration of its 70th anniversary. The Beginning of the HKAF’s three-year deep dive into 300 Years of Cantonese Opera showcases the treasured essence of Cantonese opera curated by revered legend Yuen Siu-fai, featuring three of today’s top performers. Following its critically acclaimed premiere last year, Love in the Bamboo Grove makes a triumphant return to the HKAF, where esteemed local playwright and screenwriter Raymond To Kwok-wai will reunite with the original cast to bring this exquisite Cantonese opera masterpiece about lofty ideals and abiding love back to the stage, as inspired by the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove.

Two mesmerising music theatre programmes will be presented at the 53rd HKAF—displaying the visionary legacy of a late, great Oscar-winning master and transforming a literary classic into an intoxicating revenge tragedy for our times. TIME is the final theatre production created by the late Oscar-winning composer Ryuichi Sakamoto and celebrated multidisciplinary artist Shiro Takatani, combining riveting visual design with an original minimalistic score, captivating the audience with meditative sounds and a visual dreamscape. Internationally renowned director Emma Rice transforms Emily Brontë’s epic story of love and revenge into an audaciously inventive music theatre experience in her stage adaptation of Wuthering Heights, co-produced by the National Theatre, Wise Children, Bristol Old Vic and York Theatre Royal.

The 53rd HKAF presents a diverse array of theatrical delights, from mind-reading mastery and timeless classics to a phantasmagorical mashup of the arts, a captivating underwater adventure and a gripping adaptation of a classic novel. Kazufusa Hosho, the 20th grandmaster of the Japanese Noh Five Families’ School of Hosho, and the School of Okura-Yamamoto Ke will present timeless cultural treasures from Japan with more than 600 years of heritage in a Noh theatre programme and a Kyogen play. Commissioned by the HKAF and directed by veteran Beijing director Li Liuyi, the latest interpretation of Thunderstorm by Chinese theatre titan Cao Yu features a stellar cast of celebrated Chinese actors including Hu Jun, Lu Fang and Miao Chi, and the set and costume designs of award-winning Hong Kong art director William Chang. Helmed by distinguished stage director Katerina Evangelatos, a 20-strong cast from leading Greek theatre company the National Theatre of Greece depicts the clash between human will and divine power in a contemporary take on Euripides’ classic play, HIPPOLYTUS.

Jules Verne’s timeless sci-fi classic 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is brought to life on a magical stage with a colourful underwater world full of incredible creatures in a new Putonghua version commissioned by the HKAF. This programme is under the newly launched Jockey Club East-meets-West Series. Created by the award-winning Victoria Thierrée Chaplin, Bells and Spells is a phantasmagorical mashup of dance, mime, puppetry and the circus arts led by Victoria’s daughter, the multifaceted Aurélia Thierrée, and dancer Jaime Martinez.
Led by award-winning English writer/director Phillip Breen and renowned Hong Kong director Desmond Tang, a 15-strong local cast stars in a thrilling Cantonese adaptation of Dostoevsky’s masterful crime novel Crime and Punishment. World-renowned illusionist, mentalist and performance artist Scott Silven offers an immersive, jaw-dropping performance that goes far beyond a traditional magic show with Wonders, bringing his unique form of theatrical enchantment to the 53rd HKAF.

The 53rd HKAF will enthral dance lovers with mesmerising programmes, including exquisite dancing in the unique Bournonville style, an electrifying explosion of traditional Argentinian dancing, a star-studded gala honouring a legendary ballet icon and a groundbreaking integration of live performance and virtual reality. Nagauta and Geisha, two Treasured Traditions of Japan, is a showcase of classical Japanese arts that are seldom seen outside of the country. Traditional singing and dancing will be performed by geiko and maiko, and masters of traditional instruments will also perform songs from the Nagauta repertoire.Audiences young and old will be captivated by La Sylphide, an enchanting fairytale told through The Czech National Ballet’s exhilarating dancing in the unique Bournonville style, choreographed by Danish ballet superstar Johan Kobborg. Rudolf Nureyev, the ballet legend who transformed the role of male dancers and the popular perception of ballet worldwide, is honoured in Nureyev & Friends—A Ballet Gala Tribute, featuring major works from his career performed by outstanding dancers from the Paris Opera Ballet, the Royal Swedish Ballet and the Hamburg Ballet, among others.

The worldwide sensation Malevo, Argentina’s electrifying all-male ensemble, re-envisions the traditional malambo folk dance and transforms it into a breathtaking spectacle for contemporary audiences, personifying the passion, strength and warrior spirit of Argentina’s gauchos.This year’s Jockey Club InnoArts Series features No Reality Now—an immersive theatre experience that combines dance with virtual reality technology. Audience members can switch between the live performance on stage and the virtual augmented version using a VR headset that can be put on or taken off at any time. Three internationally renowned female choreographers/dancers with illustrious, decades-long careers on stage, Cristiana Morganti, Louise Lecavalier and Mui Cheuk-yin, are celebrated through Icons in Motion, a special series of three enchanting solos. Family members, friends and two professional live dancers will dance together in Le Bal de Paris, a VR Parisian ball fantasy created by award-winning Spanish choreographer and film director Blanca Li.

Finally, on the music front, get ready for celebrated maestros, works featuring Baroque to contemporary composers and everyone in between, and boundary-pushing cross-disciplinary performances. Klangforum Wien, one of the world’s most acclaimed interpreters of contemporary music, celebrates the 200th anniversary of the birth of “waltz king” Johann Strauss II in Tritsch Tratsch, a sensational greatest-hits remix concert. Beethoven Wars: A Battle for Peace is an immersive journey in which rarely performed incidental gems by Beethoven converge with science fiction and manga. Conductor Laurence Equilbey will lead Insula orchestra and accentus on this heroic quest to create an unforgettable multisensory experience that is suitable for audience members of all ages. Celebrated as “the world’s greatest song partnership” (The New York Times), baritone Christian Gerhaher and pianist Gerold Huber will place their multiple-award-winning insights on full display while casting a radiantly glowing ambience of profound intimacy in a vocal recital programme dedicated to Robert Schumann.

Today’s supreme interpreters of Mozart and Bach, pianist-conductor Sir András Schiff and his remarkable chamber orchestra Cappella Andrea Barca, will honour these composers in two unmissable concerts. Hear some of Mozart’s best-loved music and six Bach keyboard concertos played to perfection. Inspired by T. S. Eliot’s poetic masterpiece, The Waste Land by Amsterdam Sinfonietta and ISH Dance Collective explores universal themes of despair, hope and regeneration. Accompanied by thrilling live music, dancers will break through physical boundaries as they skirt close to the ground, climb high in the air and even walk up walls. Cellist Kian Soltani plays as first among equals with the virtuoso players of the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, led by Artistic Director Candida Thompson, in a concert that ranges from the elegance of Haydn to the raw energy of Sir William Walton. Legendary piano virtuoso Elisso Virsaladze’s Piano Recital of works by Schubert, Brahms, Liszt and Prokofiev offers a wonderful opportunity to experience the magic of an icon of piano music history.

One of the most outstanding solo percussionists on the international stage today, Li Biao joins forces with The Philharmonic Percussion Group of Berlin, an ensemble made up of current and former members of the Berliner Philharmoniker, in two unforgettable Family Choice programmes.Internationally acclaimed for her dedicated interest and engagement with contemporary music, Pi-hsien Chen’s Piano Recital celebrates the 100th anniversary of the birth of Pierre Boulez, and audience members are guaranteed an electrifying performance. Piano virtuoso Pavel Kolesnikov makes a highly anticipated return to Hong Kong to perform Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 4 with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta and Music Director Christoph Poppen. Kolesnikov will also present a fascinating recital juxtaposing the music of Mozart and Ravel.

Renowned maestro Daniele Gatti conducts the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra in a performance of Mahler’s monumental Third Symphony. The performance features mezzo-soprano Michèle Losier, while the Ladies of the HK Phil Chorus and the Hong Kong Children’s Choir join for the heavenly fifth movement. The Dream of a Concubine adopts the perspective of Yu Ji as a witness to war and reimagines her longing for peace through Qu Xiaosong’s contemporary orchestral arrangement of classical tunes, performed by the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra together with soprano Lini Gong, under the baton of Artistic Director Yan Huichang.

“Organising an international arts festival of this scale requires considerable resources. The Festival aims to generate a total income of about HK$150 million this year,” says Professor Kingman Lo, Vice-Chairman of the HKAF. “I would like to thank the Hong Kong SAR Government for providing a recurrent subvention of around HK$18 million through the LCSD, amounting to about 12% of our annual income. I also want to thank the Government for including the Festival in its Art Development Matching Grant Scheme, which matches our sponsorship and donation income, and is expected to bring in an estimated 20% of our annual revenue. I would like to extend my utmost gratitude to our many sponsors and donors. In particular, I wish to thank The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, which has provided continuous support to the Festival since 1973.”

Ms Flora Yu, Executive Director of the HKAF, says: “The 53rd HKAF features a wide range of exceptional programmes aimed at inspiring and delighting audiences, promising unforgettable experiences to festivalgoers of all ages and backgrounds. Among the attractions this year is a wonderful series of programmes focused on fantasy and adventure: some programmes utilise VR and AR technology, while others draw on the more traditional puppetry and circus arts.”

“The Festival is also proud to continue presenting a stellar lineup of renowned masters from Hong Kong and around the world. In addition, the Festival will also showcase an array of masterpieces inspired by classical literature from China and the Western world,” she added. “And, as always, the Festival will offer a diverse range of thoughtfully curated PLUS activities to enrich the audience’s Festival experience, as well as an extensive outreach and education programme aimed at introducing quality performing arts to the next generation.”

Photo Credit: Hong Kong Arts Festival

For more information about the Hong Kong Arts Festival, visit hk.artsfestival.org.