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The full version of Carmen Wong, complete with new score for chamber ensembles, was performed three times with three different casts at the Shenzhen School of Music.
This new version for five singers is set over two scenes and set in a bar. Carmen, Micäela and Mércedès are bargirls; Don José is a police officer who stumbles upon a criminal operation run by the gangster Escamillo.
Carmen Wong is a new adaption of George Bizet’s iconic opera set in a Hong Kong of the 1970s. Developed for the French May and as part of the “Carmen 2025” programme celebrating the opera’s 150th anniversary, and premiering at the Hong Kong Peninsula, Carmen Wong had two staged performances at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in October 2025.
These staged performances featured Ashley Chui and Etta Fung as the two bar hostesses Carmen and Micaëla, Chen Yong as José and Isaac Droscha as the colonial policeman Escamillo, with Jaclyn Chiu on piano and including narration taken from Prosper Mérimée’s original novel.
Carmen Wong, the new localised version reduced to the four principles debuted at the 2025 French May at Felix in the Peninsula Hong Kong on 31 May, featuring Ashley Chui and Etta Fung as the two bar hostesses Carmen and Micaëla, Chen Yong as José and Isaac Droscha as the colonial policeman Escamillo.
It will be performed twice more on 21 July and 20 September.
2025 is the 150th anniversary of Georges Bizet’s iconic “Carmen”. In celebration, this multimedia presentation offers a new rendition of the timeless story. Centred on selections from the opera sung by some of Hong Kong’s most acclaimed vocalists, infused with narrative from the original novel by Prosper Mérimée (itself celebrating its 180th anniversary!) – it brings to life one of Europe’s most fascinating literary characters.
Sung in French with English surtitles and English narration, this “Europe Day” event is the first major performance of “Carmen 2025”, a year-long programme of opera, literature, music and dance, commemorating the dual anniversaries of the novel and opera.
Le toréador (1849) is a opéra-comique by Adolphe Adam, a French composer best known for the ballet Giselle. The story is of a ménage–a–trois between an erstwhile soprano, her oft–absent and unfaithful husband, and a previous lover. The work features famous variations on the folk–song Ah! vous dirai–je, maman (better known as Twinkle, twinkle, little star in the English–speaking world). This semi–staged performance resets the story in contemporary Hong Kong as The Triad, or Three in Accord (retaining the musical pun in the original French title Le toréador, ou L’accord parfait).
The premiere takes place on 6 June 2024 at the Asia Society as part of the French May and will feature Etta Fung as Coraline, Chen Yong as Tracolin and Isaac Droscha as Don Belflor, with Hsu Wei-en on piano. This will be Hong Kong (and likely Greater China) premiere.
OperaLab’s new production of George Bizet’s “Dr. Miracle” for Opera Hong Kong in cooperation with HKUST and in association with the French May premiered at HKUST’s Shaw Auditorium on 15 May 2023.
It featured Etta Fung as Laurette, Isaac Drocha as her professorial father, Chen Yong as Silvio, Romeo and the eponymous Dr. Miracle and Ashley Chui as the stepmother Véronique.
Marco Iannelli’s new score was performed by the OperaLab Chamber Orchestra conducted by Hsu Wei-en.
Dr Miracle appeared in a double bill with a new production or Gaetano Donizetti’s “Rita“.