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Pomme d’Api, which had a sold-out run from 30 June to 2 July 2023, returns to the Guangzhou Opera stage for six performances starting 29 September. These will be followed by two more performances of Rita, the hit opera that debuted in 2022. The performance on 5 October marks the 20th performance of this production.
On Sunday, 17 September 2023, the Guangzhou Opera House in cooperation with the Kirine cultural complex presented arias, duets and trios from their critically-acclaimed productions of Gaetano Donizetti’s Rita and Jacques Offenbach’s Pomme d’Api in a lakeside venue in Guangzhou’s South China National Botanical Garden. Performing were sopranos Wang Xiaoqing and Xing Xinyuan, baritones Zhai Xiaohan and Zhong Haodong and tenor Lu Yafei and Lin Junliang as Gustave.
The Chinese premiere of Jacques Offenbach’s “Pomme d’Api” opened on 30 June 2023 to a sold-out performance at the Guangzhou Opera House as part of the French Croisements Festival. Set locally in Guangzhou as the story of a small opera company putting on a production of Offenbach’s one-act operetta, this production was extended and adapted from the OperaLab’s French May production in Hong Kong in 2022, and included a world premiere score for chamber ensemble by Marco Iannelli, the addition of six additional selections from two other Offenbach operettas, “La Périchole” and “Pépito” and new Chinese dialogue.
The performance featured soprano Wang Xiaoqing as Catherine (Pomme d’Api), baritone Zhai Xiaohan as Rabastens and tenor Lu Yafei as Gustave. Zheng Honghao conducted and with Chen Yiyan as the pianist.
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“.
OperaLab’s “Pomme d’Api” has been adapted for a new run at the Guangzhou Opera House and part of the Croisements Festival. It includes a new score for chamber ensemble by Marco Iannelli, additional selections from “La Périchole” and a new “play-within-a-play staging”.
The Guangzhou Opera House is reprising “Rita” with six additional performances. Details here.
15 May 2023: a new production of Dr. Miracle, Georges Bizet’s first opera, developed for Opera Hong Kong in partnership with HKUST as part of the 2023 French May. Reset in contemporary Hong Kong, with a new arrangement for chamber ensemble by Marco Iannelli, new dialogue in English and Cantonese, and interpolating a duet from another early Bizet opera, Don Procopio.
Leading a double with a new production of Rita by Gaetano Donizetti.
The Guangzhou Opera Theatre production of “Rita” is being taken on tour, with the the first stop in Dongguan on 25 March 2023. The performance features Xing Xinyuan (soprano) as Rita, Lin Junliang (tenor) as Beppe and Zhong Haodong (baritone) as Gasparo.