A challenging double-bill dance-opera production to mount, Love Streams's two chamber operas - Heart of Coraland Women Like Us - were originally commissioned by the HKAF in 2013 and 2021 respectively. The music featured in Love Streams has been re-arranged with an expanded orchestration, and will be performed live by the Hong Kong New Music Ensemble conducted by Vicky Shin.

Heart of Coral celebrates the tumultuous life of Xiao Hong (1911-1942), perhaps the most renowned woman writer of the 1930s alongside Eileen Chang. She lived her short life with love, a free spirit, and the land and its people in her heart. Women Like Us is a tribute to Hong Kong’s literary grande dame Xi Xi (1937–) and a tale of two women struggling to face the shadows of loneliness and find hope in solitude, inspired by the protagonists of Xi Xi’s beloved short stories “A Girl Like Me” and “The Cold”.

Whether in the frosty winter of the Chinese hinterland in the 1930s or in urban Hong Kong in the 1980s, the yearning for love seems inseparable from historical, political and social forces, but audience members are sure to find inspiration in the underlying feminist perspectives of these two important modern writers.

Performance Info:
17 - 19 March 2023
Dance-Opera–Love Streams
A double-bill: Heart of Coral and Women Like Us
Lyric Theatre, HKAPA

Cast and Creatives:
Director and Choreographer: Yang Yuntao (Artistic Director of the Hong Kong Dance Company)
Composer (Women Like Us): Daniel Lo; Lyricist (Women Like Us): Wong Yi
Composer (Heart of Coral): Chan Hing-yan ; Lyricist (Heart of Coral): Yi Heng

Conductor: Vicky Shin
Dancers: Dancers from the Hong Kong Dance Company and guest dancers Jasmine Lam, Evains Lui and Pansy Lo

Soloist Singer (Women Like Us): Kenix Tsang
Soloist Singer (Women Like Us): Samantha Chong
Soloist Singer (Heart of Coral): Athene Mok
Soloist Singer (Heart of Coral): Alex Tam
Soloist Singer (Heart of Coral): Apollo Wong
Soloist Singer (Heart of Coral): Carol Lin
Vocal Ensemble: Eva Chi, Rachel Kwok, Bonnie Liu, Ernest Hui, Dennis Lau, Lam Kwok-ho
Accompanied by: Hong Kong New Music Ensemble (20 musicians)