Hard on the heels of the opening show La Belle Otero, the Hong Kong Arts Festival brought us another dance work inspired by an artist with a tumultuous life: Caravaggio.
This was a work of stunning beauty and power, with Mauro Bigonzetti’s magnificent choreography performed by a cast of outstanding dancers led by the legendary Roberto Bolle.
Among the greatest of Italian painters, Caravaggio (1571-1610) was notorious for his dissolute and violent lifestyle. He often found himself in trouble with the law and had to flee Rome after killing a man. Mystery surrounds his death at the age of 38 – did he die of disease or was he murdered?
Caravaggio’s art was revolutionary in many ways: its often stark realism, notably of religious subjects; its unashamed theatricality; its eroticism; and its use of models from the underbelly of society.
Above all, he is famous for pioneering chiaroscuro, the interplay between light and shadow that made his paintings so dramatic.
The ballet was divided into two acts. The first, while in no way a direct narrative, evoked Caravaggio’s life, the second his art.
