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The following is issued on behalf of the Provisional Urban Council:

A concert of opera highlights featuring six acclaimed Chinese vocalists will be staged at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall on May 10 (Sunday) at 8pm.

Accompanied by Hong Kong Sinfonietta and under the baton of renowned American conductor Eve Queler, vocalists including local tenor Warren Mok, bass-baritone Ding Gao from the United States, and sopranos Yao Hong, Wang Xia, Jane Chu and mezzo-soprano Wang Lei from mainland China will interpret greatest hits from operas "The Barber of Seville", "Madame Butterfly", "Tosca", "Carmen", "Pearl Fishers", "Aida", "La Traviata", "The Magic Flute", "Faust", and "Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana".

Eve Queler studied at the Mannes College in New York and she is now the music director of the Opera Orchestra of New York. She has guest conducted, apart from operas, the symphonic repertoire, worked with many famous American orchestras and performed in Australia, South Africa, the United States, Canada as well as different European countries with many prestigious opera singers.

Acclaimed as one of the most outstanding Chinese tenors in the world, Mok obtained his Master of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music. Besides having been the resident lyric tenor at the Deutsche Opera Berlin, he is also in great demand worldwide singing numerous principal tenor roles in operas.

Winner of the championship of Sullivan Foundation Competition and the fourth Enrico Caruso International Voice Competition in 1995, Ding Gao graduated from the Yale University with a Performance Certificate.

Apart from winning the Wenhua Performing Prize for her role in the opera "The Wild" in 1996, Yao Hong has won many prizes since 1990 which included the first prize in the Women's Section of the Fourth National Opera Competition in Marseilles in 1993. She is now in the Central Opera Theatre since her graduation from the Vocal and Opera Department of the Central Conservatory of Music in 1991.

Wang Xia, winner of the Class One Award at the Yokohama Vocal Competition during her study in Japan, graduated from the China Liberation Army Arts Academy and joined its affiliated Song and Dance Troupe and also the Central Opera Theatre of China afterwards.

After graduating from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Jane Chu joined the chorus of the Shanghai Orchestra and was appraised as a 'promising vocal soloist of Shanghai' in 1980. She has worked twice with the Vancouver Chamber Choir as soprano in Haydn's "The Creation" and Handel's "Messiah". She is acclaimed for her voice and singing techniques.

Wang Lei is currently the deputy concertmaster of the Opera Group of the Central Opera and Ballet Theatre of China. She won an award at the Third Offenbach Vocal Competition held in France in 1990 and an Outstanding Award at the First Shizuoka International Opera Competition in Japan in 1996.

Presented by the Provisional Urban Council, tickets at $300, $220, $150 and $100 are now available at URBTIX outlets with half-price concession for senior citizens, the disabled and full-time students.

For reservation , please call 2734 9009 and programme enquiries 2734 2930.

End/Monday, April 20, 1998

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