Carmen 2025

Carmen 2025 -  a captivating series of events celebrating the timeless allure of Bizet's 'Carmen.' Experience the passion of music and flamenco performances, alongside insightful opera talks and singing demonstrations. Discover what makes 'Carmen' a unique blend of diverse European influences, with its vibrant Spanish setting, the evocative French libretto and Bizet's masterful composition, innovating an art-form with strong Italian roots. This program offers a unique opportunity to delve into the cultural and artistic significance of one of opera's most enduring masterpieces.

Upcoming events

27 Mar, Flamenco Dance: demonstration and workshop - (click here)

About the Artist
Clara Ramona, the esteemed Spanish dancer and flamenco artist with a profound respect for tradition and a liberal and accommodating attitude towards modernism, breathes life to both pure and energizing flamenco thus gaining recognition for her original stage productions. Clara began her dance journey at age 5 in the Philippines, studying ballet and traditional dance. After moving to the U.S., she trained at the Aina Janson Ballet Academy, Boston Ballet, and Boston Conservatory, earning a BFA in dance. Her studies focused on choreography, pedagogy, and technique across various dance forms. She further honed her flamenco skills with masters in Boston, Mexico, and Spain.

Past events

About Dúo Belcorde

The Spanish Dúo Belcorde consists of Manuel Briega, violin, and Adrián Fernández, Spanish guitar. Violin and guitar form a duo of great interest, thanks to the versatility of these two instruments, the tune, melody and harmony of the same variety ant perfect symbiosis that develops between them. Dúo Belcorde has made numerous national and international tours such as Japan, Brazil, Morocco, Turkey, Australia, New Zeland, the United States of America, China, Portugal, Brazil, Luxembourg, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Mexico, etc, organised by important public and private institutions as well as different governments around the world.

This event marks the beginning of the "Carmen 2025" programme, offering a series of cultural events centred around the timeless Opera Carmen. Stay tuned for more exciting happenings!

About the Talk

Back in the day, opera was popular rather than elitist entertainment. And if any one opera illustrates why, it’s George Bizet’s “Carmen”: this now iconic story of the eponymous gypsy seductress and the fatally-besotted soldier Don José combines drama that is both metaphorically and literally gut-stabbing with music that is sensuous, hummable and entirely unforgettable. The opera has a backstory — it is based on the 1845 novella by the French writer Prosper Mérimée, who claimed the story was told to him by the Countess of Montijo — and an afterlife, having inspired numerous films, musicals, orchestral compositions, ballets, even a “Hip Hopera” starring Beyoncé.
Carmen is one of the most iconic characters ever created. This talk will tell her story, as she moves from best-selling novel to opera stage to Broadway and the silver screen. To seek an understanding of who Carmen really is, we’ll sample some of Mérimée’s vivid French prose and Bizet’s memorable music... as well as the tantalising tales that lie behind each.

About the Speaker

Peter Gordon, lived in Hong Kong since 1985, works with leading opera companies in Hong Kong and Guangdong and gives regular opera talks at the Dante Alighieri Society as well as at Alliance Française, Opera Hong Kong, the University of Hong Kong and the Asia Society.