This year the Macao Arts Festival celebrates its 25th anniversary – its Silver Jubilee – marking a quarter of a century of pursuing its goal of the ‘promotion of local artistic development, the dissemination of the world’s outstanding creations and the promotion of Chinese culture’.
1988 saw the 1st Macao Arts Festival, which aimed to establish a platform for local artists to display their creativity, at a time when most events were hosted by local arts and cultural groups.
The 2014 Festival theme is ‘Impulse’ – “a metaphor for the surging power of the arts, which not only nourishes sentiments but boosts creativity”, and consists of 31 diverse programmes with over 200 events held in 16 different venues. As was the case last year, locally-produced shows comprise more than half of the Festival’s programmes, and the opening and closing ceremonies are specially commissioned to local art groups.
Some of the best local musicians will gather in Tap Seac Square to present the Macao Arts Festival Silver Jubilee Opening Concert on May 2 at 7:30pm. The closing performance of the Festival, ‘A Dream of Light’, from May 31 to June 8 at 8pm and 9pm, brings another stunning, original audiovisual mapping show to the Ruins of St. Paul’s.
Other local productions feature dance, theatre, music, multimedia and family entertainment, as well as items of Intangible Cultural Heritage such as Cantonese Opera, Macanese Theatre (Patua theatre), and Cantonese Naamyam. This year, Naamyam will interweave with dance on stage for the first time, offering an innovative and surprising performance in a traditional Cantonese teahouse.
In addition to local performances, the programme of this year’s MAF also includes a varied array of performances from Mainland China, Hong Kong, Portugal, the UK, France, USA, Canada, Argentina, Japan, and Singapore.
President of the Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Macao S.A.R. Government, Ung Vai Men, described the nature of the merging of past and present: “Numerous artistic works have inherited tradition whilst inspiring the future, blending a new era of conceptual arts and presenting new perspective s and experiences to audiences.”
In a festival with so many forms of art from so many different places, there really is something for everyone, as the President of the Cultural Affairs Bureau notes: “This year’s Macao Arts Festival contains many highlights, catering to audiences’ different tastes.”
‘Venetians Want to Get a House’ Produced by Macau Experimental Theatre
‘Venetians Want to Get a House’ is an adaptation of ‘Clybourne Park’, a recent play by American playwright Bruce Norris, awarded the 2011 ‘Pulitzer Prize for Drama’ and the 2012 ‘Tony Award for Best Play’. Humorous and sarcastic, it explores the impact of fast-paced urban development. Directed by veteran director Wong Pak Hou, the play applies a modern twist to the issues of race and housing and aspirations for a better life.
Dance Dome
‘Dance Dome’ is an innovative 360° immersive cinema developed to surround its audiences in cutting edge contemporary dance. It presents three unique films all produced in Wales as a collaboration between 4π Productions, Coreo Cymru (Creative Producer for Dance in Wales) and Chapter. Created by an international film crew and featuring choreography by award-winning companies Taikabox, Harnisch-Lacey Dance Theatre and Earthfall, ‘Dance Dome’ blurs the boundaries between movement, digital technology and cinema, wrapping dance around the viewer to create an immersive experience.
Carminho in Macau (Portugal)
Carminho is considered one of the most talented Fado singers of her generation. Her first album, ‘Fado’, was named one of the 10 best albums of 2011 by respected British magazine Songlines. Her second album, ‘Alma’ (‘soul’ in Portuguese), topped the Portuguese charts upon its release in 2012. At the end of 2012, Carminho fulfilled her dream and recorded with Milton Nascimento, Chico Buarque and Nana Caymmi. Both albums have achieved double Platinum status in Portugal. In 2013, Carminho was honoured with the Portuguese Golden Globe for ‘Best Solo Artist’ and the Carlos Paredes Prize.
Macao Kaifong Cantonese Opera Juvenile’s Troupe
‘The Legend of the White Snake’
As part of its commitment to protecting Cantonese Opera and promoting it to young people, this year, the Festival present the Macao Kaifong Cantonese Opera Juvenile’s Troupe performing ‘The Legend of the White Snake’, a celebrated and legendary love story between a human and a snake. The unwavering love between the pair tugs at the heartstrings of the audience who witnesses how they reunite against all odds. The cast is comprised of 20 children, the youngest member being only four years old.
Lucinda Childs Dance Company (USA)
‘Dance’
‘Dance’ is a seminal collaboration among three 20th century masters, with choreography by Lucinda Childs and music composed by Philip Glass, set against the modernist film by visual artist Sol LeWitt. Since its debut in 1979, ‘Dance’ has been recognised as a key work of the period, and was acclaimed as a postmodern classic by the The New York Times. Revived in 2009, it has since toured extensively around the world, and was referred to by The Wall Street Journal as “one of the greatest achievements of the 20th century.”
‘The Anderson Project’
EX MACHINA / Robert Lapage (Canada)
Robert Lepage is one of the leading directors of contemporary theatre. His theatrical works, films and stories in his unique style have been widely recognised. Lepage was commissioned by the Danish Ministry of Culture to launch The Andersen Project to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Hans Christian Andersen. Freely inspired by two stories by Andersen (‘The Dryad’ and ‘The Shadow’) and from anecdotes drawn from the famed Danish author’s Parisian travels, ‘The Andersen Project’ is infused with complex multimedia effects and has toured globally since its debut in 2005.