Tête à Tête Opera Festival 2020
Composer: Anna Vienna Ho
Librettist: Michael CT Lam
The Monkey King: Lixin Liu
The Buddha/Ruanist: Michael CT Lam
Piano: Lingling Yu
Conductor/Wooden Fish Player: Anna Vienna Ho
Venue: The Cockpit, London
Date: Saturday 19th September 2020
Description
An adaptation of ‘Journey to the West’ by Wu Cheng’en, one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. Rooted in Chinese folk religion, mythology, and Confucianist, Taoist and Buddhist philosophies, this opera opens a new window on the novel. This short opera, which is considered a “prologue” of the whole work, shows one of its most iconic moments as Buddha talks to the mighty Monkey King. This English-language opera blends Chinese and Western musical traditions.
Buddha and the Monkey King
About the Artist
Hong Kong pianist, composer and soprano Anna Vienna Ho received an Advanced Postgraduate Diploma and her Master of Music in Piano Performance with distinction from Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. As a pianist, Anna has given solo recitals and performed in many concert venue in Hong Kong and Europe, including Royal Albert Hall, Birmingham Town Hall, Parco della Musica and Hong Kong City Hall. Passionate about opera, she has sung in La bohème, La Traviata, Macbeth, Lucia di Lammermoor, Carmen, Cavalleria Rusticana, Pagliacci, Norma, Gianni Schicchi and Amahl and the Night Visitors. Her solo piano piece “Images” is included in the RMN Classical album “Modern Music for Piano” and her choral work “The Infinite Shining Heavens” was premiered by London Oriana Choir in their annual concert. Recently, she was commissioned by the Birmingham Opera Company for its recent project. To view more of her work click below.
