Date: 2017.9.28 (Thursday)
Time: 20:00-22:00
Venue: Lobby of Cultural Affairs Bureau Building
Language: Cantonese
This famous Italian opera is based on the life of the great French poet André Chénier of the eighteenth century during the French Revolution (1789-1799), a historical event that profoundly influenced modern France and the whole Europe. The King of France Louis XVI was guillotined in the second year of the French Revolution, so was the patriotic poet André Chénier on 25th July 1794. Maddalena, Chénier’s lover from a wealthy family, asked to be guillotined after her lover.
A love triangle is the basic feature of a melodrama, thus the opera has this plot against the background of the French Revolution. This remains the only opera composed by the late nineteenth-century Italian realist composer Umberto Giordano (1867-1948) that is a perennial favorite on stage. The speaker will analyse the structure of the story and the characteristics of this opera.
Speaker:
Chow Fan Fu
Chow Fan Fu is the vice chairman of the International Association of Theatre Critics (Hong Kong) and an examiner of the Hong Kong Arts Development Council. In 2011, Chow was awarded the Medal of Honour by the Hong Kong SAR Government for his long-time contribution to classical music and arts appreciation. In 2005, Chow was awarded in the Secretary for Home Affairs Commendation Scheme. In 2014, the Beijing Normal University Publishing House published his book of music essays, Listening to Music from Thousands of Miles Away – Musical Experiences from City to Country. In 2012, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department commissioned Chow to write the book Where Modern Hong Kong Began: The City Hall and Its 50-Year Story. Other publications include Internationalizing the Orchestra: Ten Years after the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra Corporatized, Collection of the Four Seasons: Commentary on Macao’s Cultural Development of Ten Years, and Building Musical Ties for the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra.