16th Macao Arts Festival

The Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Macao SAR Government presents the 16th Macao Arts Festival (MAF) to be held between 7 March and 2 April 2005 with the main goal of displaying Chinese culture, exhibiting high quality artistic creations and promoting the growth of the Arts in Macao.

This year’s 25-day long Macao Arts Festival features 18 programmes and 28 performances from Mainland China, Taiwan, South Korea, Portugal, Switzerland, Brazil, Canada, USA, India, in addition to Macao, including the 4th Macao International Video Art Cycle, a retrospective of 100 years of Chinese cinema and the 2005 Macao Annual Visual Arts Exhibition. The festival offers shows as diverse as Kun, Yue and modern Cantonese operas; musical theatre, puppet theatre and theatre in Patois; classical music, Chinese cinema music, Portuguese pop music, Indian traditional music, Korean percussion music and Brazilian forró; and modern dance. Performance venues are spread throughout the city, notably the Senado Square, Lou Family’s House (Kam Iok Tong), Ruins of St. Paul’s, the Macao Cultural Centre, among others.

Kun opera The Peony Pavillion (Parts I, II e III) by the Suzhou Kun Opera Theatre of Jiangsu Province will open the event (7, 8, 9/3 at the Macao Cultural Centre Grand Auditorium, at 8pm). Kun opera is the oldest form of Chinese folk opera, and has been honoured by the United Nations Organization for Education and Culture (UNESCO) as a masterpiece of world oral and intangible heritage in May 2001. Cantonese opera has its own place in the 16th MAF with the performance The Jade Hairpin (18, 19/3 at Alegria Theatre, at 7:30pm) by Macao U Lok Chi Iao Chinese Opera Performance Association. This opera is considered one of the ten classic Chinese comedies of the Sheng Dan style. It recounts the touching love story of young scholar Xiao Sheng and young lady Hua Dan. This production of The Jade Hairpin reflects the high level of local art production in recent years. The 16th MAF also features Yue opera, namely the performances “Yue Opera Excerpts” by the Xiaobaihua Yue Opera Company of Zhejiang Province (26, 27/3 at The Ruins of St. Paul’s at 4pm and 11am, respectively) and The History of the Library of the Fan Family performed by the same company (30/3 at the Macao Cultural Centre Grand Auditorium, at 8pm). This new Yue Opera is the first one to break with the traditional theme of “beauty pairs with wit” in the history of Chinese theatre and the first display of the breadth and depth of Chinese book collection through theatre and singing.

The Macao Chinese Orchestra presents the Commemorative Concert of 100 Years of Chinese Cinema (12/3 at the Macao Cultural Centre Grand Auditorium at 8pm). Movies like Endless Love, All About Ah Lang, Street Angels, Strange Visitors on the Ice Mountain, amongst others, gained universal praise and popularity and are a reason for the directors of Chinese cinema of several generations to be proud. In this concert the Macao Chinese Orchestra presents a selection of soundtracks from these movies. The festival also includes the Cinema Cycle Retrospective of 100 Years of Chinese Cinema (opening on 27/3 at Alegria Theatre, at 7:30pm and 9:30pm). This retrospective of 12 world-famous movies from different epochs traces the seismic changes occurred in Chinese society and in Chinese cinema in the last 100 years.

The 16th MAF also features the 4th Macao International Video Art Cycle (19, 20, 25, 26/3 at the Macao Museum Auditorium, at 4:30pm and 8pm [25/3]). This is the fourth consecutive year the Macao Arts Festival has organized an International Video Art Cycle. The time has now come for it to become an integrated part of the Festival annual programming, taking a step forward in promoting this “younger” art form in Macao. This year we have redoubled our efforts by presenting two different programmes instead of one. The first programme, curated by Hanspeter Ammann, is entitled "The Power of Creativity". It presents a collection of 14 recent videos from artists all around the world, with a strong presence of Asian authors and themes. The second programme, also especially created for the 16th Macao Arts Festival, is entitled “Portuguese Video Cycle”. Co-organized with Lisbon’s Municipal Video Library (Videoteca da Câmara Municipal de Lisboa), it presents a selection of 13 works from some of the most celebrated Portuguese video artists. A first time event in Macao! The 4th Macao International Video Art Cycle presents a wider and richer programme without losing the qualities that led to the success of previous editions: a multicultural programme that mirrors the Eastern and Western culture legacies of the city where we live!

Portugal also marks its presence in this festival with pop singer Sérgio Godinho (27/3 at the Macao Cultural Centre Grand Auditorium, at 8pm). With a career spanning over 30 years, 20 records, hundreds of shows and some of the most beautiful songs ever in the history of Portuguese music in his curriculum, Sérgio Godinho is an icon of Portuguese pop music. An architect of words… Three decades later, he’s still searching for new paths and news languages for his music. Sérgio Godinho offers a show that is a true mosaic of emotions by covering all the great moments of his career but always leaving a space for surprises and new sounds.

The 2005 Annual Visual Arts Exhibition “Macao Cultural Heritage: Beyond History” is composed by 125 works by local artists (opens on 25/3 at Tap Seac Gallery, at 6:30pm – daily from 10am to 7pm until 29/5). These annual visual arts exhibitions aim to stimulate artistic creativity, seek out new talents and promote the different media. While promoting technical innovation, the event also aims to encourage the artistic expression of ideas. In this edition, participants were inspired to explore the myriad aspects of Macao’s culture over the course of its history. The 125 works that compose the exhibition were selected from a total of 350 submitted works, by a jury consisting of five experts from different fields of the visual arts: Dong Xiao Ming, Yu Chang, Chen Hsien Tung, Tommy Lee e David Miller (from Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Canada, respectively). Organised around the exhibition, there will be also various arts-related educational activities such as school workshops and family art workshops.

In what concerns drama, the Dóci Papiaçám di Macau Drama Group proposes an enticing new play in patois entitled A Mermaid from Heaven… (18, 19, 20/3 at the Macao Cultural Centre Small Auditorium, at 4pm [19/3] and 8pm). Musical multimedia theatre marks its presence with Leitmotiv (15, 16/3 at the Macao Cultural centre Large Auditorium, at 8pm) by theatre group Les Deux Mondes, from Canada. Within a constant changing visual environment created by shadows, video projections and an ingenious use of props and lights, two actors and a mezzo-soprano perform this musical drama which parallels the birth of a couple’s love with the rise of a deadly conflict which shatters individual destinies. Leitmotiv calls upon imagination and poetry to provoke confrontation between the forces of life and death. The festival also features a new musical drama in Cantonese, Our Life (25, 26/3 at the Macau Cultural Centre Small Auditorium, at 8pm), by Raymond To, a famous Hong Kong playwright, staged by Theatre Farmers, the sole professional entity in the theatre circles in Macao. This modern comedy describes the multicolour human features of Macao through stage, singing and dance and reveals the new local theatre production scene. For the youngest the festival has reserved the puppet theatre play The Wedding of the Mice by TTT Puppet Centre from Taiwan (26, 27/3, at Kam Iok Tong, at 3pm and 6pm). Based on the old Taiwanese folk tale “The Mouse Bride”, the play combines glove puppets, rod puppets, a storyteller and live musical accompaniment.

In what concerns music, the Macao Orchestra proceeds with the Mozart Series (Concert 4): Easter Concert (26/3 at St. Dominic’s Church, at 8pm). This concert features soprano Chen Xiao Qun, alto Yang Jie, tenor Song Bo, bass Zhang Jian Lu and the The Hong Kong Oratorio Society under the baton of Michael Lloyd performing Mozart’s Requiem Mass. From Brazil and for the first time in Macao, comes one of the most famous singers from the country’s Northeast, Elba Ramalho (19/3 at the Macao Cultural Centre Grand Auditorium, at 8pm). Elba Ramalho’s shows embrace all types of public. From fairs to conventions, from jazz to rock festivals, from folk parties to carnival and all other sorts of events, young people and adults of all classes are touched by the variety of her repertoire and by her extraordinary interpretations. The festival programme also features a joint-concert by the Indian group Divana, Musicians and Poets of Rajasthan and the South-Korean percussion group Dulsori, Sound of Nature (1/4 at Senado Square, at 8pm). Emotional, exhilarating and enigmatic. These are only some of the starting points to describe the charm of folk songs from Rajasthan, northern India. Since 1991, Divana have been the vanguard in performing the most original forms of gypsy songs. Dulsori, on the other hand, is a dynamic and unique Korean percussion musical group who highlights Korean traditional rhythm and music with a modern style. The performers encourage audiences to participate during the performances providing a festive atmosphere allowing the public to experience the brightness and the energy of Asian grace and culture and thereby reducing the space between one and the other.

Pilobolus Dance Theatre (24,25/3 at the Macao Cultural Centre Grand Auditorium, at 8pm) from the USA, represents modern dance in the festival. Founded at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, in 1971, Pilobolus Dance Theatre caught the world’s attention with its whimsical, roll-you-own movement style in which the bodies of the dancers serve as human Lego blocks that form clusters, pyramids and sculptural shapes. For over 30 years, PDT has been choreographing and touring continually, performing for stage and television audiences around the globe. It currently possesses a repertory of over 85 works, a number of which appear in the repertoires of other major dance companies.

The festival closes with the performance Carmina Burana by Carl Orff (2/4, the Macao Cultural Centre Grand Auditorium, at 8pm) by the Macao Orchestra, the Shanghai Opera Theatre and the Macao Conservatory. Carmina Burana is one of the most thrilling choral masterpieces of the last century. Orff took poems by 13th century monks and effectively set them to music by means of exciting new rhythms and percussion effects. This rare combination of choral music and modern rhythms, performed by the Macao Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Zhang Guo Yong, choreographed by Ying E Ding, promises to be an unforgettable musical experience.

Workshops and conferences on the events will be held to promote public interest and participation in the arts. Similarly to previous years’ festivals rehearsals for some shows will be open to the public.

Tickets for the 16th Macao Arts Festival will be available after 10am on January 30th 2005 at all Kong Seng Paging outlets. There will be a variety of discount plans (up to 40%). Detailed publicity materials are available at ticket counters.

For more information please check the website of the Cultural Affairs Bureau at www.icm.gov.mo
E-mail: fam@icm.gov.mo
Information (853) 555 555 in Macao; （852）23805083 In Hong Kong
Online Reservations: www.macauticket.net
The 16th Macao Arts Festival has the kind support of the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau and the Macao Government Tourist Office.