operalab
This new version of the iconic opera is scored for five singers and chamber ensemble. It 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.
The new production from Xinghai Conservatory in Guangzhou, derived from the original for the 2025 French May Festival, ran on 16-17 June 2026.
Although still less well-known today than its counterparts in Italian, French and German, song in Portuguese has spread around the globe since its earliest days. To uncover these often hidden gems of the lusophone vocal tradition, this recital — performed by young up-and-coming singers from Portugal, Hong Kong and Macau — aims to give an overview of Portuguese-language opera and song from the baroque to the 20th century, from Portugal to Macau and Brazil. The journey starts in the 18th and early 19th centuries with Luso-Brazilian composers who called both Portugal and Brazil home. The turn of the 20th century is represented by romantic opera on the European model, while the 20th century is filled with art song, from Brazil to Portugal and even from own own Macau.
The recital features soprano Sílvia Sequeira, mezzo Ashley Chui and baritone Chris Kun Hang Iek barítono singing selections from Marcos Portugal, António José da Silva “O Judeu”, José Maurício Nunes Garcia, Alfredo Keil, Alberto Nepomuceno, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Fernando Lopes-Graça,P. Áureo de Castro and Alexandre Delgado. Arièle Zanini is on piano.
Among the many Chinese who found cultural and intellectual inspiration in Paris between the World Wars were a number of now well-known artists, writers and musicians: Sanyu, Lin Fengmian, Pan Yuliang, Li Jinfa, Xu Xu, Shao Xunmei, Xian Xinghai, Ma Sicong.
This story of impoverished artists, equal parts humour, romance and tragedy, happiness and sadness, tells a completely recognisable and relatable tale of a group of young people in the period of self-discovery between feckless youth and adult responsibility.
Echoing the classic French novel by Henri Murger, based on the iconic opera by Italian composer Giacomo Puccini and sung in French, Scènes de la vie de Bohème is an intimate dramatic adaptation of Giacomo Puccini’s classic opera. Reduced to the four principal roles, this new version is designed to focus on the emotional ties between the two couples while telling a story of the Chinese cultural diaspora in Paris: a story of love, loss, art, poverty and the richness of life.
The new version debuts for the French May as part of La vie bohème 2026 on 30 May at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s Jockey Club auditorium. The performance features:
Etta Fung – Mimi
Chen Yong – Rodolphe
Vivian Yau – Musette
Lam Kwok Ho – Marcel
Piano: Arièle Zanini
The Hong Kong Professional Vocalists Association is performing the OperaLab’s “fairy-tale” version of George Bizet’s first opera Le Docteur Miracle as part of the French May Arts Festival and with the support of the French Consulate, featuring the new selections for children’s soloists and choir written by Marco Iannelli. It will performed on 21-22 May at Tungpo.
More operetta than opera, and only about an hour in length, Dr Miracle is a comedy that doesn’t take itself too seriously, yet still shows early evidence of the talent of the future composer of Carmen. It tells the timeless story of a young woman in love with a boy her overbearing father thinks unsuitable — only a doctor or lawyer will do — but, despite the attractions of a vain and flirty stepmother, love finds a way through various disguises, a poisoned possibly omelette, and a fake doctor with a miracle cure.
The upcoming four performances from 31 December 2025 make bring this new adaptation of George Bizet’s first opera into its third year of lighting up the stage at the Guangzhou Opera House.
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.
The Guangzhou Opera House closed added more performances of the world-premiere production in modern-day Laurette travels to a French fairy-tale where all her dreams come true. Marco Iannelli’ conducted his ‘s new scores includes original music featuring resettings of familiar French children’s songs, and additional music by Bizet from his other operas “Don Procopio” and “Carmen”.
As part of “Carmen 2025“, the yearlong programme of events celebrating the dual anniversaries of the novel and the opera, and following on from the opening performance of Les amours de Carmen Wong at the Hong Kong Peninsula, a musical reception was held on 29 September 2025 by the Peninsula Shanghai with French Consulate-General and Alliance Française.
The even featured readings from the novel by Edouard Beaud, and musical selections—including a new arrangement of the Chanson Bohème for piano, flute and mezzo by Marco Iannelli—performed by mezzo-soprano Shen Xiwen, pianist Li Zijian and flautist He Jingqian. The evening was directed by Chen Yong.
This second performance of Carmen Wong, the new localised version reduced to the four principles which debuted at the 2025 French May at Felix in the Peninsula Hong Kong on 31 May, features Ashley Chui and Etta Fung as the two bar hostesses Carmen and Micaëla, Chen Yong as José and Albert Lim as the colonial policeman Escamillo.
In May, the Guangzhou Opera House celebrated its 50th performance of its series of immersive comic operas begun just three years ago in 2022 with Gaetano Donizetti’s Rita. This was followed by Jacques Offenbach’s Pomme d’Api and the current run of George Bizet’s Le docteur Miracle. According to producer Jenny Liang Lizhen, “This series of productions combines the art of Western opera with Chinese local culture, successfully exploring a new model of cross-border fusion opera.”