Hong Kong International Operatic Singing Competition 2018 Winners Concert with Sumi Jo

Chen Yibao, Margrethe Fredheim and Sumi Jo (photo: Titan Lam)

The winner of Musica Viva’s 2018 inaugural Hong Kong International Operatic Singing Competition, Norwegian soprano Margrethe Fredheim, joined third place and audience prize winner, Chinese soprano Chen Yibao, in a return concert 17 June 2023 headlined by renowned Korean soprano Sumi Jo, who had been one of the competition’s judges.

Chen Yibao accompanied by the Hong Kong Philharmonic under J David Jackson (Photo: Titan Lam)
Chen Yibao accompanied by the Hong Kong Philharmonic under J David Jackson (Photo: Titan Lam)

In this wide-ranging concert, Fredheim sang included selections from Jules Massenet’s Hérodiade and Antonin Dvořák’s Rusalka. Chen sang selections from Francesco Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur and Otto Nicolai’s Die Lustige Weiber von Windsor while Sumo Jo sang signaure coloratura selections from Charles Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, Adolphe Adam’s rarely-performed Le toréador and Giovanni Bellini’s I puritani. The three sopranos joined for unusual trio renditions of Jacques Offenbach’s “Barcarolle” from Les Contes d’Hoffmann and the champagne aria from Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus.

The evening’s other star was the Hong Kong Philharmonic under the direction of J David Jackson, who played the overtures to Giaochino Rossini’s La gazza ladra, Ferdinand Hérold’s Zampa, Ludwig van Beethoven’s Fidelio and Gaetano Donizetti’s Anna Bolena.


Peter Gordon is editor of the Asian Review of Books.