The Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Macau SAR Government will
hold the 21st Macau International Music Festival (MIMF) from
October 5 to 31.
The festival that brings internationally-acclaimed artists from
all over the world to Macau every year, has now become a major
musical event in the territory.
The event reflects the diversity and uniqueness of the enclave
and enriches the region's cultural life while meeting the
community's expectations and aspirations. This year's program will
comprise opera, symphonic music, chamber music, contemporary music,
pop and modern music, and offer a more dynamic encounter between
East and West.
Famous Portuguese artist Maria Joo Pires returns to Macau 25
years after her unforgettable recital at Sir Robert Ho Tung Library
at the invitation of the Cultural Institute to play the music:
Beethoven and Mozart.
While the Portuguese woo Macau's orchestra at the Cultural
Centre, Maestro Alexander Vedernikov conducts the Russian National
Orchestra on a tour through three of Russia's greatest composers:
Mikhail Glinka, Sergei Prokofiev and Piotr I. Tchaikovsky. Still
more international artists travel to the SAR to present what will
be one of the most eclectic programs in the history of the MIMF.
Seventeen concerts of traditional, classical, pop, electronic and
new-age music from Finland, Argentina, Austria, the Czech Republic,
Brazil, Italy, Germany, Singapore and Canada will be presented
during the festival.
The MIMF will be launched by a pair of operas. Rigoletto has the
opening honors on October 5, remaining on the scene for three
nights. An energetic cast sings the love story that inspired a
Verdi brimming with emotion. Italian vocalism bares its deep roots
with a very unique production of Don Giovanni, the last of Mozart's
operas.
The event will also feature the mesmerizing voices of the Vienna
Boys Choir. After their journey to Macau along the Silk Route four
years ago and an earlier appearance in 2001, the Austrian choir now
drops anchor in the deep waters of the Germanic tradition, with the
polkas and waltzes of Strauss at the Clementina Leito Ho Brito
Theatre.
But even before the arrival of the Austrians, Europe comes into
view at Dom Pedro V Theatre with two trios from quite different
musical traditions. On October 10, the Omniart Trio ignites an
emotional fuse leading to South America and the tango footwork of
Astor Piazzolla. This music is an invitation to the dance and an
inspiration for accordionist Ruggiero Mascellino, who displays his
talent as a composer as well, offering several works of his own on
the program.
Besides the multicultural aspect presented in each year at the
MIMF, Jaime Torres and his charango guitar bring the musical
culture of the Andes to Macau, as the sikus and quena flutes
accompany this virtuoso in a dance of the Americas where the steps
of the tango and the melodies of the Coplas take turns on the
floor.
Alongside these border-crossing ventures, the MIMF maintains
ties with the homeland at the Dom Pedro V Theatre, as the Beijing
New Music Ensemble builds a bridge to the West with Sounds in
Migration on October 21. The orchestral works by Western composers
with links to China will offer the audience a taste of East-West
fusion.
The Macau Chinese Orchestra will honor Jenny Yen with a stroll
down the festival's red carpet. The Cantopop star should feel at
home as she shares her successes. Her career was centered on Hong
Kong and Taiwan, but few know she was in fact born in Macau.
After the orchestras have heated up the Macau Cultural Centre
stage, it's time for the celebrated Broadway musical Grease. The
melodramatic marriage of song and dance, albeit American style,
will run for four nights from October 26 to 29 to tell the love
story of Sandy and Danny immortalized by Olivia Newton-John and
John Travolta on the silver screen. Still, it was on Broadway that
Summer Loving and Greased Lightnin first won fans for the musical,
created in 1959 by the duo Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey.
(China Daily July 29, 2007)
