Superstar Soprano Renée Fleming Performs with the HK Phil under the baton of Music Director Jaap van Zweden (8 & 9 November)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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Meggy Cheng
Director of Marketing 
Tel: (852) 2721 9035
Email: meggy.cheng@hkphil.org 

Flora Fung
Media Relations and Communications Manager
Tel: (852) 2721 1585
Email: flora.fung@hkphil.org

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[5 November 2019, Hong Kong] In what is sure to be a highlight of this concert season, superstar soprano Renée Flemingwill return to the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (HK Phil) stage for the first time in 12 years, performing alongside Maestro Jaap van Zwedenin a programme full of joyfulness and melody, on 8 and 9 November at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall.

Described as “possibly the most beautiful soprano voice in the world” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung), Fleming will open her programme with a group of three early Romantic songs for soprano and orchestra by melodic master Schubert. She will continue with a nostalgic recollection of summer evenings in Tennessee with Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915. Opera News described this work as “tailor-made” for her “with its lush, soaring melodies tinged with folksong, dramatic climaxes to show off her upper range, and a slightly sentimental text steeped in Americana”.

Book-ending these songs are a pair of orchestral works led by Music Director Jaap van Zweden. The first is the Prelude and Liebestod from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, an unforgettably ecstatic celebration of love. The concert concludes with Shostakovich’s uncharacteristically joyful Ninth Symphony—originally conceived as a grand tribute to Soviet victory in World War II, but which ultimately became a light and playful work that was censored in Russia within a year of its premiere.

This is the second programme that the HK Phil dedicates to the Hong Kong Cultural Centre (HKCC) for its 30th Anniversary in its birthday month – November, and the first night of this programme - 8 November - is the very day of the HKCC’s opening. So come and share the joy of this special month in this iconic arts and culture venue in Hong Kong.

JAAP!: Jaap | Renée Fleming will be held on 8 & 9 November (Fri & Sat) at 8PM in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall. Tickets are HK$880, $680, $480, $380and are available at URBTIX. For enquiries, please call +852 2721 2332 or visit hkphil.org.


Artists
Jaap van Zweden, conductor [full biography]
Over the past decade, conductor Jaap van Zweden has become an international presence on three continents.  Currently Music Director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, he is also Music Director of the New York Philharmonic – a post he has held since the 2018/19 season. Guest engagements this season include the Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Shanghai Symphony and Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

Renée Fleming, soprano [full biography]
Renée Fleming is one of the most acclaimed singers of our time. In 2013 President Obama awarded her America's highest honour for an artist, the National Medal of Arts. Winner of the 2013 Grammy Award (her fourth) for Best Classical Vocal Solo, Fleming has sung for momentous occasions from the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony to the Diamond Jubilee Concert for Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace. She earned a Tony Award nomination for her performance in the 2018 Broadway production of Carousel. Fleming’s schedule this season includes concerts in New York, Boston, Vienna, Paris and Beijing.


JAAP!: JAAP │ RENÉE FLEMING
8 & 9 | 11 | 2019
FRI & SAT 8PM
Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall
HK$880 $680 $480 $380
Tickets are now available at URBTIX.
For ages 6 and above

Artists

Programme