The Mediterranean Arts Festival organized by the Leisure and
Cultural Services Department of Hong Kong will run from Oct. 19 to
showcase Mediterranean culture to the public.
Chief Manager of the department Elaine Yeung said at a press
conference on Thursday that the festival will feature leading
artists from Germany, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Egypt
and North Africa.
Along with the recognized Spanish Flamenco, Portuguese fado,
Venetian carnivals and Greek tragedy, the festival also showcases
art forms rarely encountered in this part of the world, such as The
Whirling Dervishes of Turkey and Byzantine secular music.
By staying tuned to the month-long event, people in Hong Kong
will have the opportunity to explore the cream of the performing
arts in the region without leaving the city, discovering for
themselves the enchanting world of Mediterranean music, dance,
sound and color, said Yeung.
Opening the festival is "The Italian Feast" by Balthasar Neumann
Choir and Ensemble (Germany) with performers in beautiful costumes
and masks to play early Baroque music, recreating the vitality of
17th-century Italian carnivals.
The closing program "Gala Flamenca Dance - Yesterday, Today and
Always" (Spain) brings the legendary Flamenco performers and
hottest young stars from the London and New York Flamenco Festivals
in this unique showcase.
The festival will also feature Commedia dell'arte masterpiece "
Arlecchino, Servant of Two Masters," the National Theater of
Greece's authoritative interpretation of "Aeschylus' Prometheus
Bound," Byzantine secular music "Musical Heritage of the
Mediterranean" and some other ones.
(Xinhua News Agency September 7, 2007)