Two-month International Music Festival will mainly rely on a regional cast
The 34th Macao International Music Festival (FIMM) will return, with five out of ten items in its program featuring local casts.
This year’s FIMM will be held from September 25 to October 29.
Local violinist Nina Wong and theatrical drama actor Wong Pak Hou will take part in two of the 10 shows. Nina Wong will work with pianist Xiyuan to present a concert titled “Bravo Macao!”, while Wong Pak Hou will narrate another concert titled “Variations of Jade – the Journey of Tang Poetry.”
The first concert will feature a repertoire of classics that consists of three sonatas and a solo violin piece by composers such as Johannes Brahms and Richard Strauss. Meanwhile, the latter concert will showcase pieces by John Alden Carpenter, Albert Roussel and Luo Zhongrong, among other composers, with bass-baritone Shenyang singing poems from the Tang Dynasty. Some works in the translated Chinese poetry collection ‘Die chinesische Flöte’ (The Chinese Flute) by German poet Hans Bethge, which inspired Mahler, Webern, Penderecki and many other composers, will be highlighted at this concert.
Celebrated Chinese conductor Zhang Guoyong and the Macao Chinese Orchestra will jointly present the violin concerto ‘The Butterfly Lovers’ with young violinist Wang Zhijong, retelling in musical form the antique Chinese romantic story depicting a striving woman who dressed as a boy so that she could study at school. There, she met the love of her life, but the duo could not live happily ever after due to pre-existing marital arrangements. At the end of the story, both transform into butterflies and ascend to a shared life.
This year’s festival will kick off with the symphonic play ‘Peer Gynt’ by Edvard Grieg, which will feature an interpretation through the performance of 22 characters by accomplished actor David Wang based on the script rewritten by renowned music critic Yuan-Pu Chiao, as well as music jointly performed by conductor Zhang Jiemin, soprano Li Xintong, the Macao Orchestra and the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra Chorus.
Renowned conductor Long Yu and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra will join hands with er-hu player Lu Yiwen and pianist Zee Zee to convey the boundless charm of music through repertoire featuring both Chinese and Western genres.
In “FIMM-tastic Music and Movie Night,” recorded shows “Voz e Violão” by António Zambujo and “English Renaissance Polyphony – a survey” by The Tallis Scholars will be screened at the Amphitheatre of the Taipa Houses and St. Dominic’s Church respectively, presenting Portuguese fado music and English sacred music on the big screen.
