Wit and splendor abound in this retelling of Pinocchio by Swedish choreographer Pär Isberg and his collaborators – Jérôme Kaplan (costumes), Bo-Ruben Hedwall (set), Aya Mok (props), and Billy Chan (lighting).
– Click here to read our August review in Bachtrack. –
Hong Kong Ballet’s virtuosic Liu Yu-yao leads a brigade of Crickets in Pär Isberg’s new PINOCCHIO, rakishly costumed by Jérôme Kaplan (Photo: Tony Luk)
The Hong Kong Sinfonietta soared throughout the Respighi score, imaginatively confected by conductor Benjamin Pope.
Though some choreographic editing was needed, Isberg and dancers marvelously conveyed the layered innocence in puppetry. This Pinocchio hints at political subversiveness in a child’s anthropomorphizing of the world. “What this theater demands is the seriousness of the child at play,” wrote Kenneth Gross in his provocative Puppet: An Essay on Uncanny Life – a demand that Hong Kong Ballet has triumphantly fulfilled.
PINOCCHIO (Hong Kong Ballet’s Shen Jie) falls into the ocean and encounters some very stylishly costumed marine creatures (Photo: Kitmin Lee)
Shen Jie encounters a troupe of commedia performers in Hong Kong Ballet’s charming new PINOCCHIO (Photo: Tony Luk)
