The second Kaohsiung Spring Arts Festival opens this weekend, offering Greater Kaohsiung residents a wide variety of performances by Taiwanese and international troupes.
One of the headline acts is Tadashi Suzuki’s musical version of La Dame aux Camelias, featuring a cast of Taiwanese actors and singers. The show is a flagship production of the National Theater Concert Hall (NTCH) and had its world debut in Taipei on Feb. 10 as part of the NTCH’s Taiwan International Festival of Arts (TIFA), though it drew mixed reviews.
Another highlight of the Kaohsiung festival will be two outdoor performances of “Bugs Bunny at the Symphony,” featuring the Kaohsiung Symphony Orchestra against a backdrop of Warner Brothers cartoon characters projected onto a big screen.
George Daugherty, the show’s creator and conductor, will lead the orchestra in the two concerts, which will be held at the lakeside embankment of the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts next Friday and Saturday.
Another outdoor performance that is expected to draw large crowds is On the Road (很久沒有敬我了你), a collaboration between the National Symphony Orchestra and Taiwan Colors Music, and features some of Taiwan’s best-known Aboriginal singers.
The show, which combines live performances with a mock-documentary film, was one of the hits of last year’s TIFA. On the Road will be staged on March 5 and March 6.
The five-month long festival will be bigger this year because more international groups are participating, according to an official from Greater Kaohsiung’s Bureau of Cultural Affairs, which is hosting the event.
There is also greater involvement by NTCH, with several productions from this year’s and last year’s TIFA.
Spain’s TrukiTrek, whose performances of Hotel Crab at the Experimental Theater in Taipei this weekend sold out weeks ago, will perform on Wednesday and Thursday night at the Wei Wu Ying Center for the Arts.
Other visiting groups include the Salzburger Marionetten Theatre, a puppet company from Austria that will present its version of The Sound of Music on March 4 and March 5, and the Kronos Quartet from the US.
The string quartet will perform their multi-media production, Sun Rings on March 6, two days after their performace at the National Concert Hall in Taipei.
Eleven groups, which are based in Kaohsiung, will also be taking part in the spring festival between March 11 and June 18, with performances ranging from Taiwanese opera and puppetry to Chinese music and from modern dance to jazz.
About 40,000 people attended the first Kaohsiung Spring Arts Festival last year, the Bureau of Cultural Affairs said.
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