Gulbenkian Choir

EVENT DESCRIPTION

The Gulbenkian Choir is in the room with you—but also not. That’s the premise of Os dias mais longos e os mais curtos (The Longest Days and the Shortest Days), one of two programmes brought to the HKAF by the Portuguese troupe, which has performed with orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Orchestra de Paris and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and combines its 60-plus years of history with a restless commitment to innovation.

The musically intricate performance marries a 40-strong live choir with a virtual version of itself projected onto a screen, singing both together and separately. They are flanked by soprano Beatriz Ventura, countertenor David Hackston and Hong Kong pianist Rachel Cheung, under the baton of conductor Jorge Matta in the flesh—or perhaps in digital form?

This “tech cantata” uses the alienation of the pandemic, the solitude and anxiety experienced as a starting point to reflect on the passing of time. It reverses the Covid-era paradigm of watching live performances online, by bringing a virtual performance to a live audience. The Longest Days and the Shortest Days challenges our perceptions, blurring the line between the real and the digital. Written by the Guggenheim-award-winning Hong Kong-based American composer Eugene Birman and staged by Giorgio Biancorosso, the work takes its title from a poem commissioned for the occasion by Portuguese writer Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida.

The Gulbenkian Choir’s other Hong Kong concert, Choral Treasures from Portugal, presents acapella works by Portuguese composers from the 1600s to today, as well as Bach and Brahms. Conducted by Martina Batič, the choir’s principal conductor, it promises to be a spine-tingling introduction to a collection of lesser-known choral works, both sacred and secular.

Meet-the-Artist sessions will be held after the performances on 4/3 (Wed) and 5/3 (Thu).