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To January 6
You rarely see so much sweat during the cold winter months but sweaty – and nailbiting – it will be when US Open Champions Maria Sharapova, Kim Clijsters and Svetlana Kuznetsova meet to find out who will be this year’s Queen of Aces. 2005 Japan Open Champion Nicole Vaidisova and 2005 World No.1 Lindsay Davenport will also be contending at the Watsons Water Champions Challenge. The tennis tourney includes both singles and doubles (China’s 2006 Wimbledon Doubles Champs Zheng Jie and Yan Zi are our favourites) competitions, both finals being on January 6 from 2:30-8:30pm. Tickets from $280-$680 available from URBTIX, 2734 9009. For more, go to www.watsonswaterchallenge.com. |
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January 12-13
Ella Fitzgerald (who recorded a whole Gershwin songbook), Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Billie Holiday, Nina Simone – you name them and all the 20th century jazz greats have sung George Gershwin numbers. Many classical musicians have also released Gershwin recordings – Kirill Gerstein’s recording debut in 2004 featured the New York-born Russian Jewish composer, and Gerstein returns to Hong Kong after a stunning performance last season with Gershwin tucked twice into his programme. An American in Paris is a musical tone poem Gershwin wrote after an inspiring trip to Europe and meeting with Ravel. The pianist couples this work with Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G. And just to complete the French connection, Gerstein also plays Debussy’s Le Mer. The Hong Kong Philharmonic will be conducted by Edo de Waart in both concerts which start at 8pm at HK Cultural Centre Concert Hall. Tickets are $100-$300 and available from URBTIX, 2734 9009. |
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January 12-13
Admit it, you’ve seen him dancing – on the never-ending roadshow on the bus or at home in front of your television. Probably you couldn’t keep your eyes off him, either because you were too stunned or you were wondering why girls around the globe are so crazy about him. Whatever the case, Rain kicks off his Rain’s Coming Asian tour in Hong Kong with a production team that includes director Jamie King, visual director Dago Gonzalez and lighting director master Roy Bennett, all who have worked with superstars like Madonna and Christina Aguilera. Prepare to jump and scream till the Asia World Expo-Arena falls. Show starts at 8pm, tickets: $380-$1280 from HK Ticketing 31 288 288. |
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January 12-14
In love or at war – an eternal tension plays out constantly between the two genders. Choreographer Frankie Ho’s latest work Are You Sure? lines up six dancers to test this tension, especially as it affects relationships in a busy and modern city. Performers include last year’s Hong Kong Dance Awards winner Yang Yuntao and Bruce Wong, champion of the Hong Kong Wushu Championship 2006, who has also shared the concert stage with pop stars Aaron Kwok and Shirley Kwan. The role of narrator falls to local talk show DJ and writer Wasabi. Be at the McAulay Studio Theatre at Hong Kong Arts Centre on the 12th and 13th at 8:15pm or 13th and 14th at 3pm. Tickets are priced at $120, available from URBTIX, 2734 9009. |
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January 12-14
In case you don’t know – Proof was not originally a film. It was a Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning drama written by American playwright David Auburn. Founded in 1993, Taiwan’s Greenray Theatre first created a series of musicals but most recently launched the World Theatre series, part of which is their adaptation of Auburn’s Proof. Greenray brings the play to Hong Kong as Taiwan’s contribution to the Chinese Drama Festival. The play centres on the daughter of a brilliant but mentally unstable professor of mathematics. When he dies and a student going through his works finds a world-shaking maths proof, the daughter claims it is actually her work. But is she as unstable as her father was? Performances will be in Putonghua with Chinese and English subtitles at 7:45pm from 12 to 14, and 3pm on 13 at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Studio Theatre. Tickets are $140 and $200 and are available from URBTIX, 2734 9009. |
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Sunday January 14
Since his debut in 1962, pianist Peter Frankl has played around the globe and gives master classes at top music institutions including the Royal Academy and Royal College in London. He visits Hong Kong to join conductor Yip Wai-Hong and the Pan Asia Symphony Orchestra in Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in D Minor, Op. 40 and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 in G, Op. 58. Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture, Op.21 is also on the programme. The concert begins at 8pm at the HK City Hall Concert Hall. Tickets can be obtained for $100-$200 from URBTIX, 2734 9009. Peter Frankl will also lead master classes on January 10 from 3-5pm and January 12 from 1:30-3:30pm. Tickets are free – get yours from Hong Kong City Hall enquiry counter – first come first served. |
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January 15-20
Director Tang Shu-wing and the students at HKAPA strip Chinese opera Di Nu Hua, aka Princess Changping, of all its traditional trappings to make a modern minimalist theatre experience focused on the raw flow of energy between audience and actor. The play is set in the dying days of the Ming Dynasty when the marriage of the princess to her lover is interrupted by a coup de tat leading to the Qing dynasty. Ordered to commit suicide by her father, the princess survives and reunites with her lover. Finally the two of them end their lives on their wedding night. This experimental version of a transformed classic Chinese opera tale is part of the 6th Chinese Drama Festival and plays from 7:45pm on January 15-20 and 2:45pm on January 20 at HKAPA’s Academy Studio Theatre. Ticket costs $90 at HK Ticketing, 31 288 288. |
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January 17-20
After the thought-provoking interpretation of Kafka’s Metamorphosis, Theatre du Pif moves on to an even colder world. The group first presented Russian writer Nikolai Gogol’s masterful short story The Overcoat at the 2001 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, but now return with a new cast including three times Hong Kong Drama Award’s Best Actor Lee Chun Chow and Victor Pang, artistic director of Actors’ Family. Published in 1842, The Overcoat portrays how a new and expensive overcoat changes the life of a lonely government clerk in St. Petersburg. Shows from January 17-20 start at 8pm at the Fringe Club’s Fringe Studio. Tickets are $150 from HK Ticketing, 31 288 288. |
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Thursday January 18
Three-time Grammy award winner R’n’B singer-songwriter John Legend comes to the Asia World Expo-Arena with amazing piano skills and hit tunes such as Safe Room, So High and Used to Love You. The 28-year-old changed his name from Stephens to Legend when his pals said his music sounded like some old-school legendary artist – but the man certainly doesn’t look old-fashioned. He came in second in Esquire’s World’s Best Dressed Man, right after the new Bond, Daniel Craig. Legend is not one of the Ordinary People – see him live and know it. Tickets are $325-$688 from HK Ticketing, 31 288 288. |
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