The 2000 Hong Kong Arts Festival, the first Hong Kong art festival in the new millennium, will present to audiences an international festival of the highest artistic standard, Chairman of the Hong Kong Arts Festival Society Ltd. Martin Barrow said November 10.

The festival, due to start from February 11, 2000 through March 12, offers a significant larger number of seats, totaling about 112,000, and 133 performances of 36 programs, Barrow said.

A wide range of world-known Chinese and foreign music pieces, operas, dances will be performed during the festival.

The festival will officially open with the prestigious China National Symphony Orchestra, underscoring the festival's continued effort to showcase top Mainland artists in the festival.

For the first time in more than 12 years, the 2000 Festival will feature two large-scale operas -- Janacek's Jenufa and Dvorak 's Rusalka performed by the 240-member strong opera, orchestra and chorus of the Prague National Theater.

With the aim of promoting local talent internationally and encouraging cultural exchange, the festival is launching the first dance showcase featuring six local dancers and dance companies such as DanceArt Hong Kong and Three Colors, Program Director of the festival Grace Lang said.

Together with the staging of City Contemporary Dance Company's Plaza X by Helen Lai, Walking With Wings by Edwin Lung, the Birmingham Royal Ballet, the Ea Sola Company and Carmen by La Cuadra de Sevilla, the dance showcase constitutes a Dance Festival within this year's Festival, Lang said.

The Festival will stage performances reflecting the contemporary total art concept, blurring the boundaries between music and theater, music and dance, and dance and theater. With the use of live music, the audience will experience the many facet of sight and sound in one go, according to Lang.

To commemorate the 250th anniversary of great musician J.S. Bach's death, the Festival will also present all Bach concerts, she said.

Lang summarized the characteristic of the Millennium festival as having more focus and more opportunities for cultural exchange, and being more economical in its operation, with its a budget just under 60 million HK dollars (7.8 million US dollars).

Since its founding in 1973, the Hong Kong Arts Festival has undergone many changes and is now famous for its wide range of high-quality international programs. It is now the largest festival of its kind in Asia.