Kuala Lumpur, 28 February 2017 – The Kuala Lumpur City Opera (KLCO) brings back a second Opera festival in Malaysia on April 1 & 2, 2017, after its successful inauguration last year!
Themed `Celebrating Opera Today’, the two-day Kuala Lumpur City Opera Festival (OperaKUL) will be held at Publika Solaris Dutamas – Black Box, The Square and the Bridge at Publika – where the public will get to enjoy performances, workshops and talks by well known foreign and local vocalists and musicians from the classical fraternity. There will also be screening of KLCO’s past opera productions.
Some of the performers and speakers featured include accomplished Italian conductor-pianist Nicoletta Conti, Cecilia Yap, Ang Mei Foong, Chi Hoe Mak, Andrea Panduano, Janet Kan, Solomon Chong, Wicked Music People and the KL City Opera Chorus. The festival will culminate in a finale concert themed `Celebrating Opera Today’ featuring some of the most loved opera music and top soloists.
Nicoletta Conti, who hails from Bologna, Italy, was the first Italian who was awarded the prestigious Minerva Prize for the arts, and she has collaborated with important festivals and theatres in Europe and Japan, and had appeared alongside Luciano Pavarotti, Renato Bruson, Leo Nucci and Daniela Dessi in operatic work. Among the works she had conducted included Don Giovanni at the Teatro Regio di Torino, the double bill of I Pagliacci and Suor Angeli for Opera Holland Park, and Il Trovatore, La Traviata in Tokyo with the Tokyo Philharmonic.
Nicoletta Conti will be conducting two workshops and accompanying a performance at OperaKUL.
True to a festival atmosphere, there will be both indoor and outdoor bazaars with stalls selling memorabilia, fashion and homemade items, as well as snacks and drinks from food trucks.
This year, OperaKUL will be held in conjunction with MAP Fest, an annual, month-long festival at Publika to cover various arts disciplines that include the visual and performing arts, bazaars, workshops and new media.
Held for the first time last year, the objective of the OperaKUL is to garner public interest in opera music by inculcating its appeal and appreciation. This annual opera festival that features European classics is the first of its kind in Malaysia and possibly in the South East Asian region. It is held with KLCO’s primary objective to promote western opera music interests among Malaysians through stage performances and concerts.
Admission to the festival is free with a minimum donation for entrance to workshops and performances. Programs start at 2:00PM until 10:00PM while bazaar is opened from 10:00AM to 10:00PM on both days.
