September 5-28
Unlike the French Nouvelle Vague sparked off by film critics, the Japanese New Wave – or nuberu bagu – in the ’60s started within the studio system itself. A couple of the key figures were Imamura Shohei, once assistant director to Ozu Yasujiro, and Masumura Yasuzo who worked for Mizoguchi Kenji. Such youngbloods, finding the old maestros too conservative, portrayed their anger and sorrow in films like those in the Film Programmes Office’s Repertory Cinema 2008 programme 2 – Japanese New Wave Cinema. Highlights of this 28-movie programme include Teshigahara Hiroshi’s Woman in the Dunes (1963), awarded the Special Jury Prize at the 1964 Cannes Film Festival and nominated Best Foreign Film in the 1965 Academy Awards, Imamura Shohei’s The Insect Woman (1963), which took the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the 1964 Berlin International Film Festival, and Masumura Yasuzo’s A Wife Confesses (1961), in which Wakao Ayako’s splendid performance brought her Best Actress awards at 1962’s Blue Ribbon and Kinema Junpo Awards in Japan. Tickets cost $50 from URBTIX, 2734 9009 and for individual screening times and venues, please refer to our Listings section starting page 30.
September 5-8
Nobel Prize–winning Austrian playwright and novelist Elfriede Jelinek is undoubtedly a controversial figure in the literary world – as anyone who has read, or seen the film adaptation of, her novel The Piano Teacher will know. So it will be intriguing to see how On & On Theatre Workshop stages the first Chinese theatre adaptation of the novel, especially as Jelinek’s text has been described as ‘unplayable’. The Cantonese performance of Dramas of Princesses: Death and the Maiden I-V will be staged from September 5-8 at On & On Theatre, Cattle Depot Village. Shows start at 8pm and tickets are $140 from On & On Theatre, Kubrick (Yau Ma Tei and apm), Mackie Study and Hong Kong Reader, more on 2503 1630.
September 6 and 7
Mention the letter ‘B’ to fans of classical music and they may respond with names like Berlioz, Bartok and Buxtehude. To the Pan Asia Symphony Orchestra, B brings to mind Beethoven, Brahms and Bach and so its two concerts entitled The Three B’s – Music Divine are a tribute to those three giants of classical composition. Music director and conductor Dr Yip Wai-hong and principal guest conductor Jimmy Chiang will each conduct a concert, with soloist violinists Korean David Hyung Ki Park and Hong Kong’s Henry Choi. On the programme are Bach’s Double Violin Concerto in D Minor, BWV1043, Beethoven’s Symphony No 6 (The Pastoral), and Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D, Op 77. The concerts will take place at Yuen Long Theatre Auditorium on September 6 at 8pm and at Sha Tin Town Hall Auditorium on September 7 at 3:30pm. Tickets are $100, $80 and $60 for the Yuen Long concert and $110, $90 and $70 for Sha Tin: tickets from URBTIX, 2734 9009.
Saturday September 6
Live Earth didn’t find its way to Hong Kong last year, but now we will be staging our own music event to raise awareness of global warming. Safe the Planet 2008 will feature Canto-pop hot shots Denise Ho and Hins Cheung, as well as singers Wilfred Lau and Terence Chui. The concert will be staged at AsiaWorld-Arena and starts at 8:30pm. Tickets are $680, $480, $320, $220 and $120 from HK Ticketing, 31 288 288.
September 5, 6, 8
Renowned pianist Yundi Li sat alongside former political heavyweights like Tony Blair and Henry Kissinger at Beijing University last month in talks on what makes a champion, but he can probably best explain with his hands on a keyboard. And that is what he will be doing at the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra season opening concert on September 5 and 6 when the talented pianist will be presenting Yundi Li’s Ravel. Li will be playing Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G but Messiaen’s Les Offrandes oubliées and Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique will also be on the programme. The concerts will commence at 8pm in the HK Cultural Centre Concert Hall and tickets are $680, $480, $300 and $180. In September 8’s Yundi Li in Recital at the same venue, he will play works by Chopin, Schumann/Liszt, Wang Jian-zhong and Mussorgsky. The recital will start at 8pm with tickets priced at $680, $480, $380 and $280. Get tickets for both concert and recital from URBTIX, 2734 9009.
Wednesday September 10
Shortly after releasing Kassia Women’s Choir’s CD The First Five Years and presenting a choral workshop with Dr Dan Perkins, director of choral studies at Plymouth State University, the Kassia choirs are preparing for their annual summer bash, under the banner Summer Fling 2008. This year, the combined Kassia women and men choirs will be chilling us out in the hot summer weather with numbers like Duke Ellington’s Hit Me With a Hot Note, George Gershwin’s Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off and Sammy Davis Jr’s What Kind Of Fool Am I?. The choirs will be at Fringe Club Fringe Studio at 8pm, and tickets are $220 from HK Ticketing, 31 288 288.
Until September 11
Written by French playwright Yasmina Reza, Art won the Best Play award at the Tony Awards in 1998 and has been translated into more than 30 languages and staged in over 40 countries. The Hong Kong Repertory Theatre ran the black comedy back in March 2007 and again in May 2008, both times directed by Weigo Lee. Three close friends falling out over an expensive modern painting leads to questions on the meaning of art, friendship and life. The production returns to the SAR once more – but with a completely different cast. Directed by Lee and starring local stand-up comedian Dayo Wong as well as theatre veterans Chan Suk Yi and Tang Wai Kit, Art is now showing daily (except Mondays) at HKAPA Lyric Theatre until September 13 at 8pm. On September 6, 7 and 13, matinees start at 3pm. Tickets are $400, $280 and $100 from HK Ticketing, 31 288 288.

September 13
Augustin Dumay may be known to many as a conductor or a chamber musician, but his most remarkable success must be as a violin soloist. He rose to fame in 1979 when Herbert von Karajan invited him to play at a gala concert in Paris with Yo Yo Ma. Immediately afterwards he was engaged to play Bartok’s 2nd violin concerto in concert with the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Colin Davis. He hasn’t been in our city since 2004 but is returning to pair up with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta for a one-night-only concert, Augustin Dumay Plays Beethoven. The concert will be conducted by Andrew Grams and Dumay will showcase his extraordinary talent in Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D, Op 61, while the evening’s programme also includes Stravinsky’s Concerto in D for string orchestra and Brahms’ Symphony No 3 in F, Op 90. The performance will commence at 8pm on September 13 at Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall. Tickets are $360, $220 and $120 from
URBTIX, 2734 9009.
Friday September 12
Search George Benson and Take Five on YouTube and you are most likely to find Benson’s performance at Montreux 1986, which some hailed as Benson at his best. If it wasn’t, it sure proved the man’s excellence yet again. Then look up Al Jarreau and Dave Brubeck performing the same song for the first time and imagine what it would be like to hear Jarreau and Benson perform together on stage. They have, of course. And released a 13-track album, Givin’ It Up, featuring classic songs like Breezin’ and Mornin’, covers of Miles Davis’ Four and John Legend’s Ordinary People, as well as collaborations with Paul McCartney and Patti Austin. The album was nominated for three Grammy Awards and you can hear the duo in a one-night-only concert at HKCEC on September 12. The show will start at 8pm and tickets are $990, $790 and $590 from HK Ticketing, 31 288 288.
Wednesday September 17
The State Academic Bolshoi Theatre of Russia – more commonly known as the Bolshoi Theatre – is bringing its signature performance Spartacus to Hong Kong. The ballet composed by Aram Khachaturian and choreographed by Russian leading dancer and choreographer Yuri Grigorovich has been a fixture of the Bolshoi Theatre’s repertoire since 1968 and, this time around, 19-year-old Ivan Vasiliev will dance the lead role – he will be the youngest Spartacus in the theatre’s 231-year history. The show will commence at 7:30pm at HK Culture Grand Theatre. Tickets are $880, $680, $440, $200 and $100 from URBTIX, 2734 9009.