17th Macao Arts Festival A Showcase of Cultures

The Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Macao SAR Government announces the 17th Macao Arts Festival (MAF) to be held between 11 March and 1 April 2006. This year the Macao Arts Festival beats all its previous performance records. In 22 days, Macao will host 39 performances of 18 different shows. Artists from every corner of world will present shows mixing tradition and modernity from Macao, Mainland China, Vietnam, Portugal, Germany, the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic, Guinea-Conakry, and Canada. In this 17th edition of the Festival, two companies highlighting the circus show why these arts have found new audiences all over the world. Circus Baobab, the first of its kind in Africa, opens the festival. Emerging from a cultural collaboration between France and Guinea-Conakry, they employ modern circus techniques to distil the purest essence of African tradition. On 11 March, Sai Van Lake Square will be decorated with a baobab, a tropical tree the branches of which will be the stage for jugglers, dancers, and acrobats. Marinated in a cauldron of many arts, the drama of Balagan -- a circus extravaganza to be staged at the Macau Tower on 30 and 31 March -- is peppered with humour and sensuality. This recipe for dreams from the creative mind of Sebastiano Toma (Tiger Lilies Circus) gathers dancers, acrobats, and circus artists from many countries to swim and stir in the brew of dreams that is Balagan’s stage. There are many local performances this year with the Bamboo Bazaar making a fresh entrance in the festival’s programme. During the weekend of 25 and 26 March, a stage for local Macao performers will call attention to the Senado Square. Over 160 local artists are being given the chance to present their work in the 2006 Visual Arts Annual Exhibition. Display will cross the Tap Seac Gallery borders reaching up to the Mount Fortress Access. The opening is on 25 March. Drama promises to attract many to the Cultural Centre with two local performances. The Dóci Papiaçám di Macau Drama Group presents an enticing new play in Patois entitled “Paradise Village” (25 and 26 March). Like the Macanese troupe, Theatre Farmers also stage a story, “Everlasting Beauty,” that humorously investigates Macao society. Cantonese opera has its own place in the festival with the performance Trading Twins (18, 19 March at Alegria Theatre) by the Chinese Opera Troupe of the General Union of Neighbours’ Association of Macao. A sense of humour and liveliness enrich this performance. Dynamic and imaginative, the story mixes the gentle and poetic with stirring battle scenes and comic relief, appealing to a diverse audience. In the musical world, The Macao Orchestra will take the public on a grand tour, from the familiar romantic settings of Brahms to faraway Scandinavia and Russia. Under the baton of Tsung Yeh, the Macao Orchestra will present a string of pearls from 50 years in the life of the father of new music in Hong Kong, Macao’s own Doming Lam. Reflections of East and West sparkle as one in these gems of Chinese contemporary music written by a man hailed by Tan Dun as one of today’s most important composers. From Mainland China comes one of the best contemporary drama theatre troupes. The Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre will serve up “The Flavour of Cappuccino” on two nights (16 and 17 March, with surtitles in Portuguese and English) at the beautiful Dom Pedro V Theatre. Inspired by the human fabric of urban existence, this ultra-caffeinated “cappuccino” stimulated sold-out audiences for the first 20 days of its debut in Shanghai. Chinese dramatic brilliance will illuminate the Cultural Centre as it hosts a performance by the Wuhan Beijing Opera Theatre. Only recently have The Golden Lotus Feet (with surtitles in Portuguese and English) worn their miniature shoes upon the stage. This is a lost tradition lately restored to the public eye by this Beijing Opera troupe, now performing for the Macao Arts Festival. A troupe of 12 puppeteers will portray Vietnamese legends while dragons and fairies dance behind the puppet theatre’s bamboo curtain. Over 150 puppets of the Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre give new life to one of the most ancient art forms in all of Asia, born almost a thousand years ago in the lakes of the villages of Vietnam. Handed down from generation to generation, this ancient art will be presented to the public in over 15 performances at the Barra Square (with surtitles in Chinese, Portuguese and English). Europe is the most featured continent in this year’s programme. On 18 March at the Cultural Centre, accompanied by the Septet La Habana 99, Portuguese popular singer Vitorino relives his childhood memories of boleros like Las Tres Palabras and Guantanamera. The bolero crossed the border from Madrid to Portugal decades ago and incited the people to dance to their rhythm. In a marriage of two cultures enamoured with one another for centuries, the Portuguese group Ala dos Namorados will join the delicate traditional sounds of The Macao Chinese Orchestra at the Mount Fortress stage on 17 March in a concert that will also include solo performances by the two groups. From the Czech Republic, Theatre Image will create on March 25 and 26 poetic illusions by setting colours in motion, by unfolding mysteries with magic tricks that leave the stage and enter into the audience. Appealing to families, this combination of dance, music, and the other circus arts have worked in harmony within the black velvet scenery of Theatre Image’s more than 6000 performances worldwide for the past decade. They now bring the very best of this black magic to Macao, to challenge the audience‘s imagination. It is from their own land that the Slovak National Folkloric Ballet draws its inspiration. For the past 50 years they have opened eyes and ears all over the world to the typical dances and sounds of their Eastern European country. This group of 30 dancers, joined as a rule by a band and choir, is reputed to be the highest expression of Slovak culture and said to weave the very fabric of tradition from living colour; strong arguments that make this one of the most important groups to perform in Macau, at the Cultural centre, closing the Arts Festival with a golden key.
Workshops and conferences will be held to promote public interest and participation in the arts. Similar to previous years’ festivals, rehearsals for some shows will be open to the public. The Macao Government Tourist Office kindly supports the 17th Macao Arts Festival promotion in Mainland China and overseas. The performances held at the Macao Cultural Centre are supported by the Macao Cultural Centre’s rental subsidy scheme. Tickets for the 17th Macao Arts Festival will be available after 10am on 27 January 2006 at all Kong Seng Paging outlets. There will be a variety of discount plans (up to 40%). Chinese New Year envelopes will be offered on tickets purchased before the Chinese New Year. Detailed publicity materials are available at ticket counters.
For more information please check the website of the Cultural Affairs Bureau at www.icm.gov.mo Information (853) 555 555 in Macao; (852) 2380 5083 in Hong Kong
Online Reservations: www.macauticket.net