Preview- Figaro- Aurora Theatre
29-5-15
By: Theo Blake
For the past three years director/productor, Nicole Garbellini and local playwright Peter Gordon have been teaming up to present an opera reinvented for Hong Kong audiences. Last year was Don Yuan, the year before it was Duetto. This year they present Figaro, which is not exactly an opera per se… With humour and satirical commentary, de Beaumarchais’s "The Barber of Seville" was an immediate sensation across Europe in the late 1700s. "Figaro" resets the play in modern Hong Kong, where classic French farce meets Asia’s World City. This play later inspired the operas of the same name that became more famous.
Peter Gordon laments, quoting an article in the Guardian…“Pity the poor dramatist whose work becomes a successful opera. Unless he is Shakespeare or Schiller, he will usually find that he is simply regarded as source material. So it is with Beaumarchais whose twin masterpieces, The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro, are rarely seen outside France and have been largely superseded by the more famous operas."
Aurora Theatre describes Figaro as this: “What can the head of an insolvent European nation do to save the national treasury? The only hope is to marry for money and -- lots of it. He comes - where else? - to Hong Kong to court a certain Rosy Ma, daughter of a billionaire businessman. Rosy, an "overseas" student at university, is watched over by old Dr Hu, who wants Rosy and her money for himself. Does love even matter any more? Figaro is everyone’s "fixer" and, boy, does he fix things!”
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Another director is helping Nicole with this production, Vanessa Eva-Louise Noble. You might recognize her name from the sell-out production of The Vagina Monologues earlier this year at the Premium Sofa Club or her many appearances on stage as an actress. I had the pleasure of seeing her on stage in Lear at the Shakespeare festival. Vanessa states “The process has been very fast paced and collaborative. It has been such a pleasure to work with such independent and talented people; at times the artistic team could just sit back and enjoy rehearsals!”
It stars new and familiar faces to the Hong Kong stage like: Alexander James, Suen Chi Hung, Nikil Inaya, Harmony Lee and Vimal Vaz. Nicole is proud to work with a diverse cast from many different backgrounds, “Aurora Theatre is an independent theatre company; we have twelve shows under our belt, and we want to continue doing more. We are grateful for the support of our followers, as it is important for us to make a contribution to the local independent theatre scene and give opportunities to artists; the government should be more supportive towards this scene and address arts and drama not as a hobby but as a profession… As usual, our actors come from different backgrounds; that's the way we love it!”
This is the first time Aurora has collaborated with arts festival Le French May. It has been very exciting for the creative team. “The French Community is rather big, they are all connected to each other and really supportive towards promoting French art and culture in Hong Kong. This is our first collaboration with then, but we hope for more in the future…” says Nicole.
Figaro is playing from June 3rd to 6th at the Fringe Club in the Underground Theatre. Shows begin at 7:30pm and tickets can be purchased through HKticketing. Prices start at 220HKD and there are additional discounts for students, seniors, Fringe Club members and persons with disabilities.
“This is a show, like Don Yuan and Duetto, that puts together different communities: the French, the locals, the theatre and the opera goers…. We love to work on projects like this as we really feel a connection with different groups we don't normally work with,” Nicole adds. Community spirit is "the thing" at Aurora Theatre. They obviously love creating work for the people of Hong Kong - why not come down to the Fringe Club and support them? It sounds like a fun way to reinvent opera for the modern day audience!
Figaro is playing through June 6th. For more information, click here.
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