Arts Festival 2005

The Arts Festival was over a month ago. I went to three shows this year, in which one of them was a nightmare to me.

The show was called Little Prince Hamlet, and it was NOTHING like the Little Prince or Hamlet. Like the two literatures, I expected the show was a drama (my bad, didn't read the info carefully enough), but no, it was mostly dance, epilepsy-liked dance to be precise. Accompanied to the dance were some disturbing lights and disturbing music. My eyes actually pained after the show.

Why did I buy the ticket for the show? Because I read this:

Asian theatre's dynamic new generation

Setting off on a journey that begins with the famous tales of Antoine du Saint Exupery's The Little Prince and continues on to Shakespeare's masterpiece, Hamlet, six all-round talents from different Asian countries join hands to herald the next decade for Asian dance theatre.

From widely different cultural backgrounds and notions of beauty and aesthetics, the creativity of these young talents is synthesized and contrasted. Between them they develop provocative and tantalizing new perspectives that go beyond the roots of Asian arts traditions and the multi-media art forms imported from the West.

So from this experience, I learnt never trusting the flamboyant words on the leaflets again, it's only a mean of marketing. Same with the film festival, picking out a super good movie (and not boring) is like testing out luck.

Another show I watched was the Mozart Requiem. I went alone because I didn't bother to ask around to see who'd be interested, and indeed it turned out to be more appreciatory to watch an orchestra alone. But the performance itself was only mediocre though it's different from the conventions, because it added in Gregorian chants and poetry readings. By this, Conductor Malfred Haneck wrote, that he hopes the audience could come to a close look of how Mozart viewed death.

I don't know was it only the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, the musicians were not very professional to me. I'm not talking about their music, but the way they waited for they turn to perform. Some were looking around, a few were sitting with their legs spread (though they're in pants), and one was even resting his head on his arms which were on his knees.

The best show I watched, the Blind Boys of Alabama, was actually an unexpected one. Gospel singing in Southern accent was nostalgic to me, and the blind boys made a success in lighting up the spirit of every audience.