{"id":94297,"date":"2026-10-19T19:42:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T11:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=94297"},"modified":"2026-10-19T19:42:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T11:42:07","slug":"review-hong-kong-ballets-visually-stunning-dunhuang-in-search-of-light-fails-to-fully-tell-tale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=94297","title":{"rendered":"Review | Hong Kong Ballet\u2019s visually stunning Dunhuang: In Search of Light fails to fully tell tale"},"content":{"rendered":"


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There is nothing more difficult than living up to expectations. Dunhuang: In Search of Light<\/em><\/span> is the first new full-length production for Hong Kong Ballet by the husband-and-wife choreographic team of Ricky Hu Songwei and Mai Jingwen since the multi-award-winning The Butterfly Lovers<\/em><\/span> in 2024. The exceptional success of its predecessor raised the bar, and while the new work offers plenty to enjoy, it does not reach the same level.<\/div>\n

On the plus side, the lush, atmospheric score by Tian Mi (composer of The Butterfly Lovers<\/em>) cleverly incorporates traditional Chinese instruments. The visuals are stunning, with Jonathan Wong\u2019s outstanding sets, including an awe-inspiring giant Buddha head, well-imagined costumes by Dieuweke Van Reij and video by Dan Fong making effective use of the auditorium and stage. The final image of Guanyin descending from heaven is a dazzling coup de theatre.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, these elements are the icing on the cake, and the cake itself is less satisfying.<\/p>\n

The main problem is the subject matter. The original commission was to create a ballet inspired by Dunhuang\u2019s famous Mogao caves<\/span>, with their treasure trove of Buddhist art. Magnificent as the caves may be, they are not obvious material for a full-length ballet, so Hu and Mai used Hermann Hesse\u2019s 1922 novel, Siddhartha,<\/em> about a young man seeking enlightenment through Buddhism.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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There is nothing more difficult than living up to expectations. Dunhuang: In Search of Light is the first new full-length production for Hong Kong Ballet…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":94298,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[24023,29693,830,2608,3569,5231,536,28,1506,7713,5161,29100],"class_list":["post-94297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-ballets","tag-dunhuang","tag-fails","tag-fully","tag-hong","tag-kong","tag-light","tag-review","tag-search","tag-stunning","tag-tale","tag-visually","wpcat-33-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=94297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/94298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=94297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=94297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=94297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}