Das Rheingold is a tale of greed and gold, unfulfilled promises and threats of destruction, culminating in a grand vision of Valhalla, somewhat tainted by how it was achieved. Over all hangs the ring and its destructive curse. In early

On Friday, 1 November, and Saturday, 2 November, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, under Lorin Maazel performed an evening of Wagner. But, it wasn’t Wagner as most of us knew it. The evening started with the Siegfried Idyll, famously given its

I’ve watched many performances of Madame Butterfly since my teens – in Paris, London, Verona –and I must confess that apart from the famous Un bel dì vedremo aria or the Humming Chorus, I get pretty bored if the performance

Hong Kong made history this month, hosting the world premiere of the former colony’s first homegrown grand opera, “Dr. Sun Yat-sen.” Not only is its namesake Cantonese; so were the composer, librettist, and much of the cast. Opera Hong Kong’s

I love Italy. Italians have a particular sense of elegance – refined, understated and polished, with delicate attention to detail. They are probably the most sophisticated Europeans. Yet their food is unpretentious – simple but so heavenly delicious – not

I was in Paris for a few days to meet a very special friend, and managed to get a couple of tickets to Madame Butterfly at the Opera Bastille. I hadn’t intended to write about this event, for the very

Over the past few years, Hong Kong’s classical music scene has become increasingly active. The city is slowly shedding its ‘cultural desert’ reputation, attracting a slate of world-class artists and offering a broad variety of programmes. Unfortunately however, opera remains

Commissioned by the Paris Opera, Verdi wrote a five-act opera based on Friedrich Schiller’s play, Don Carlo. According to the grand opera criteria of the times, the work had to be sung in French, with spectacular scenes providing an opportunity