Opera Hong Kong’s Roméo et Juliette a West Side Story wannabe

Veronika Dzhioeva presents a menacing Turandot in Opera Hong Kong's latest production which attempts to merge historical accuracy with the complexities of Orientalism. 

This production brought the work into the 21st century, at least visually, with a more modernised and digitally-stylised telling than their recent attempts.

Director Andrejs Zagars went for a multimedia presentation of Salome modernised to the 20th century, which had its moments, but left serious questions about deviations from Strauss’ score built around Oscar Wilde’s play unanswered.

Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman is a tale not only about redemption through love, but also about the helpless plight of human beings in the face of wilful and vindictive supernatural forces. In the hands of Wagner, the mythical Dutchman, instead of being a collector of itinerant souls at sea, has become an intrepid adventurer condemned to eternal maritime wandering.

Jacques Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann is a fine example of how the ridiculous can indeed be sublime. Three E.T.A. Hoffmann stories about otherworldly love affairs with defective femmes fatales, one of whom turns out to be a mechanical doll, connected only by the author’s gullible alter-ego as protagonist, scale the heights of the phantasmagorical.

Verdi’s La Traviata is frequently listed as one of the most often programmed operas worldwide. Since it premiered in 1854, it must have greeted audiences around the world tens of thousands of times.