Presenter：Stacey Rodda 盧廸思
MAY 2025 FOCUS: FRANCE
VIDEO PROMOTIONS ...
…connecting music to visual arts, literature, film and theatre while discovering the delights of these arts in different parts of the world
NEW
FOCUS: FRANCE
The Culture Show with Mr. Benjamin Cabouat, Consul for Culture, Education and Science in HK and Macao
The Culture Show with Mr. Benjamin Cabouat, Consul for Culture, Education and Science in HK and Macao
The Culture Show with Mr. Benjamin Cabouat, Consul for Culture, Education and Science in HK and Macao
PREVIOUS
The Culture Show with Mr. Timo Kantola, Consul General of Finland in Hong Kong
The Culture Show with Mr. Timo Kantola, Consul General of Finland in Hong Kong
The Culture Show with Ms. Alice Fratarcangeli, Director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Hong Kong and Macau
The Culture Show wirh Ms.Klára Jurčová, Consul General of the Czech Republic in Hong Kong
CHAGALL REVISITED
This week we look at Marc Chagall's painting Commedia dell’arte, originally created for the Frankfurt Opera House in 1959.
Historically, the circus, one of Chagall’s favourite subjects, had grown from the theatrical features of the old Italian Commedia dell’arte. In this extremely large 'circus' painting, all of Chagall’s favourite performers can be seen, together with an orchestra and audience. Chagall’s work is filled with brilliant colour and exuberant activity - it is joyous and life-affirming.
We will also hear Ana Sokolović’s Commedia dell'arte (I, II, III), an acclaimed trio of string quartets that bring the theatrical characters to life through music. Her very recently staged Clown(s) met with sweeping critical acclaim with reviewers recognising the work as a landmark contribution to contemporary opera.
Presenter：Stacey Rodda 盧廸思
ROSSETTI, LEIGHTON AND THE HARP
The visual arts have been influenced by music and musical instruments for as long as we can imagine. In this programme, we look at the unique aesthetic beauty of the harp featured in ever so many paintings.
La Ghirlandata (1873) by Dante Gabriel Rossetti is incredibly beautiful. In it, he uses deep, rich greens and golds for the woman’s robe and the lush foliage that surrounds her. Rossetti’s subject looks directly at the viewer while playing a gilded harp. Musical instruments figure prominently in Rossetti’s work. His Morning Music captures an intimate domestic scene complete with a musician playing a type of lute.
Edmund Blair Leighton’s The End of The Song (c. 1902) depicts one of the world’s greatest legends - the tragic tale of the forbidden but undying love between the Cornish knight Tristan and the Irish princess Isolde. In this painting, Tristan, a gifted harpist, has just serenaded his beloved Isolde with a song of love.
You can imagine the music to come…
