Set in a fictitious near-future Hong Kong ruled by mega-conglomerates, corporate lawyer Falke throws a Gatsby-themed bash for the return of the incoming CEO Orlofsky, who brings a rare freedom: to laugh, to play, to unite. Eisenstein, a high-flying executive facing a sentence in the company’s private prison, sees the party as his last shot at flirting and flaunting. His wife Rosalinde, tangled in her own affair, plots to expose him. But as mistaken identities multiply and revenge fades into irrelevance, something unexpected happens – just when everything seems on the brink of chaos: everyone sheds their masks, letting go of their struggles for a fleeting glimpse of joy.

Born out of Vienna’s 1873 stock market crash, Johann Strauss Jr’s Die Fledermaus was a celebration of joy in the face of crisis. Today, as we spin through burnout and late-capitalist absurdity, the operetta asks: what if we didn’t just escape… but truly laughed again? With French maestro Pierre Vallet conducting a production led by young international director Eugene Ma in his local opera debut, Hong Kong Grand Opera invites you to an evening of dramatic elation and melodious bliss!Sung in German with dialogue in English and Cantonese, Chinese/English surtitles available