On occasion of the 31st Macao International Music Festival (MIMF), the Macao S.A.R. Government invited consuls of various countries accredited to Hong Kong and Macao to participate in a tour organized by the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC, from the Portuguese acronym) on 21 October. The delegation visited two exhibitions of Macao artists at the Macau Art Garden and experienced Macao’s shipbuilding craft. Later, the delegation attended the outdoor opera of this year’s MIMF Orfeo ed Euridice. This cultural tour allowed the consuls to experience Macao’s cultural and artistic atmosphere.
The consular corps, accompanied by the Vice President of the Cultural Affairs Bureau, Kent Ieong Chi Kin, and the Acting Head of the Department of Performing Arts Development, Paula Lei, visited the Macau Art Garden to explore two exhibitions: “Armed Culture or Cultural Arms – Helmet Series by Wong Ka Long” and “Renaissance on One’s Own – Works by Nick Tai”. In the former exhibition, they explored they intricate relationship between warfare and culture through a series of helmets and military items, while in the latter exhibition, they experienced the charm of Renaissance paintings from the artist’s acrylic and oil paintings. The IC also invited the local archaeological and cultural practitioner, Tam Chon Ip, to introduce and demonstrate the local shipbuilding crafts. Under his guidance, members of the delegation divided into groups and made miniature oars, learning more about Macao’s traditional craftsmanship.
In the evening, the delegation, accompanied by the President of the Cultural Affairs Bureau, Leong Hio Ming, the Vice President of the Cultural Affairs Bureau, Kent Ieong Chi Kin, and the Acting Head of the Department of Performing Arts Development, Paula Lei, headed to Mount Fortress, one of Macao’s World Heritage sites, and enjoyed the outdoor opera in three acts by Christoph Willibald Gluck Orfeo ed Euridice. This open-air co-production of opera by MIMF and the Israeli Opera, follows an outdoor production presented by the MIMF held in 1992, reinterpreting a tragic love story from Greek mythology, offering the dramatic effects of an outdoor opera. The cultural tour of the consular corps thus ended to the music of an impressive opera.