Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony will open the 34th Hong Kong Arts Festival
A superb production of Don Giovanni by the Semper Opera Dresden and Opera Nuremberg will celebrate Mozart's 250th birthday
Sailf Keita will bring unforgettable west african rhythms and ballads to town

This year's Hong Kong Arts Festival is set to bring some of the world's most renowned names into town along with many new and unfamiliar ones. As a showcase for the best international and regional artists, the Festival is a major event on the Asian cultural calendar, promoting Hong Kong as a truly cosmopolitan and culturally vibrant international city.

Mozart's 250th birthday will be celebrated in a style befitting the great composer - a concert by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Britain's leading period instrument orchestra and Don Giovanni, Mozart's finest and best-loved opera, played by the Semper Opera Dresden and Opera Nuremberg.

"One of the aims is to present some of the world's best performing ensembles in work which showcases them at the peak of their powers," says Douglas Gaultier, executive director of the Festival.

This year's legends include Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony and Britain's National Theatre, who will bring their most successful play, Alan Bennett's The History Boys, to Hong Kong as their Asian premiere. The homegrown Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra meanwhile, will join hands with the City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus to present Mahler's massive and dramatic symphony, Resurrection.

Dances from all corners of the globe will include flamenco performed by Eva Yerbabuena, dubbed as 'the first lady of flamenco', and an epic masterpiece inspired by the movements of Chinese calligraphy entitled Cursive: A Trilogy by the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan.

The Festival would not be complete without a taste of world music and this year Hong Kong will welcome Salif Keita and his West African rhythms and soulful songs, and Bulgaria's Ivo Papasov who won the Audience Award at the 2005 BBC Awards for World Music for his exuberant wedding band music.

There will also be performances to appeal to family audiences such as Beauty and the Beast played by the Birmingham Royal Ballet, and La Cucina dell'arte by Italy's Circus Ronaldo.

The 34th Hong Kong Arts Festival will run over a 37-day period starting 9 February with 40 performing groups - 30 overseas and 10 local - putting up 106 exhilarating performances, for the pleasure of arts lovers in Hong Kong and the region.

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Hong Kong Arts Festival