Faust, Hong Kong Cultural Centre
By Ken Smith
Published: September 20 2004 13:25 | Last updated: September 20 2004 13:25

Hong Kong's opera lovers, lacking a full-time opera house and gaining a standing company only in the past year, have long rallied around their annual civic productions, where disparate local organisations and a few artists of international standing come together under the umbrella of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department.

This ad-hoc arrangement naturally leads to productions that are high on spectacle and rather less consistent in musicality, and on this count the current production of Gounod's Faust at the Cultural Centre's Grand Theatre runs true to form.

First, the high points. Rarely does Gounod's music encounter such a well-matched Faust and Marguerite as the Chinese-born tenor Jianyi Zhang and the New Zealand-born soprano Deborah Wai Kapohe.

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