Feuding families, star-crossed lovers, a nutty nurse and a scheming friar – who is not familiar with Shakespeare’s most famous love story. Nevertheless, a new opera production of Romeo and Juliet is calculated to raise an eyebrow or two.

words yvonne teh

Think Romeo and Juliet, and among the lines that automatically spring to mind are Juliette’s “O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?” and her swain’s impassioned “But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the East, and Juliette is the sun!” from the famous balcony scene. Yet, talking about his company’s upcoming collaborative staging of Roméo et Juliette with France’s Opera de Nice, Opera Hong Kong’s artistic director, Warren Mok, dramatically announces: “Don’t look for the balcony – it’s not there!”

And with that Mok proceeds to hint that his company’s presentation of the famous tragedy of a pair of young, star-crossed lovers will have its share of surprises. Continuing with the disappearing balcony, he says enigmatically, “That’s right, no balcony, but an imagination of a balcony.” And leaps on my inadvertent and surprised “Oh ho!”

“I like the ‘Oh ho!’” he exclaims. “Because people should come see the production and be surprised. Also, Hong Kong Ballet just [this past March] did a wonderful production of Romeo and Juliet themselves, with a traditional balcony and everything. So we wanted to be different. Otherwise, people don’t need to come.”

Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette will be one of just two productions from Opera Hong Kong in 2007. (Aida will be the other in October.) But as for casting, this particular Le French May offering is like three productions in one. Not only will the leads change on alternate evenings – tenors Warren Mok and Dominique Moralez taking turns to play Roméo and Luz Del Alba and Manon Strauss Evrard alternating the Juliette role – but a matinee on June 2 has been designated a special ‘Young Artist Performance’ in which promising talents Yuki Ip and Oliver Lo will headline an entirely youthful cast for the opera.

And how young is young? Shakespeare’s Juliette was a very tender 13 but Mok laughs at the idea that worthy opera performers could come close to being that young. “To train opera singers to take on leading roles, you need at least six to eight years,” he says – usually singers are not ready until they are between 18 and 26. Nevertheless, “Some of our featured performers are still in school, and local schools, at that. So they are in their 20s and 30s.” And to underline that even that is quite young for opera singers, the still youthful-looking opera veteran divulges, “I myself am in my 40s and other opera singers are in their 50s. But they can still look very young and, with makeup, can look even younger! Like in their 20s!”

While on the subject of youth, Opera Hong Kong’s founder is equal proud of the development of young operatic talent in Hong Kong and that opera audiences in Hong Kong aren’t “all blue- and gray-haired” as in western countries, especially the US. As he notes with some pleasure, “I see people around 60-70 years of age in the audience. But I also see teenagers. So I think the average is around 30-40, which is good, and much younger than in the West.”

Although he castigates himself for being “stupid enough” to be the first to establish an opera company in Hong Kong and then try to keep it going (“A hell of a job!”), Mok is optimistic about the future of both the company and local opera in general.

It’s not just that Opera Hong Kong has already staged eight major operas and a concert, despite “so little funding from the government” since its founding in 2003. Or even that Mok is already making plans for 2009 productions. (Roméo et Juliette, an international five-act production with a budget of over $5million, has been nearly two years in the making.) Rather, even if “there’s a lot of money in Hong Kong but not many people who donate money for operas”, sufficient sponsors have been found to complement and encourage a wealth of youthful local musical talent. That, says Mok, is cause for great hope for the local opera scene.

For he is convinced that opera is a relevant and important part of Hong Kong’s cultural and artistic landscape. In his own words: “I think that opera is the most complete art form of the western performing arts. And that’s why we’re doing this! People say, ‘It’s only for westerners’ but this really is not true! Hong Kong is a metropolitan, cosmopolitan, international
city. And a city of culture which needs this kind of cultural artistic addition.”

And one of the chief reasons for that, he says, is because the operatic world is now international in a way not possible to even envision some years back. “It’s no longer a case of French opera is for the French, Italian opera is for Italians…Whenever you mention opera in the world, it’s very international on the stage, and it’s become an international performing art form.”

He points out that in a rehearsal of Roméo et Juliette during this interview, there is “a French soprano, an American tenor, a Chinese [man] singing Tybalt, and a Uruguayan soprano.” And the opera itself is “a Shakespearian English drama set in Verona, Italy, scored by a French composer and being staged in Hong Kong! How much more mixed can you be?”

A man for whom the professional and the personal seem interchangeable, the irrepressible Mok goes on, “Because I was educated in America and started my career in Europe, I think it’s my duty, my calling, to bring western culture back to Hong Kong. I think western culture and Chinese culture, when mixed, makes for a great thing. And that’s what Hong Kong society is about – a mix of cultures.”

For all of these grand gushings though, Mok is fully aware that Hong Kong still has its share of ‘opera virgins’. When asked whether he thinks many in the audience of Roméo et Juliette will be taking in an opera performance for the first time, he responds with an eager, “I sure hope so! That’s my aim. And that’s why we’re putting on the special Young Artist Performance of the opera. And note that show is tailored for students and the elderly, and they even get offered 50% discounts for it!”

He feels Roméo et Juliette would be particularly good for local Hong Kongers to check out on a maiden opera outing. “Even people who are not familiar with operas, when they see that title, know the story already!” he says. “It’s a love story, the sort that happens every day, the kind of melodrama which you can see on TV [in Hong Kong] every day; so it fits the [Hong Kong cultural] mould very well. And that’s the reason why I’m doing it.”

And what should a first comer to opera expect from his production? “First, when you come to see opera, you should look out for the singers! And focus on the beautiful voices they have and how they act on stage. Gounod has written such beautiful melodies for this opera, I think that if you’ve never attended an opera before, you’ll enjoy the beautiful music of this one. For this particular opera, besides the music, besides the singing, you should use some of your own imagination, look for the direction of the staging, and imagine this romantic story in your mind. But don’t look for the balcony – it’s not there!”

Roméo et Juliette will be performed at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre’s Grand Theatre from May 31 to June 3. The evening performances will commence at 7:30pm with tickets priced from $150 to $880. The special Young Artist Performance on June 2 will start at 2:30pm. Tickets for that show are priced at $120, $240 and $360. Tickets are available from URBTIX, 2734 9009.