One of the three world-class tenors, Jose Carreras is going to perform in Kaohsiung City on the evening of October 17-the first time he will sing outside of Taipei during his performing tour in Taiwan.

At the press conference for the "outdoor live broadcast of Jose Carreras' concert" held in Grand Formosa Regent Taipei on October 12 jointly by the Council for Cultural Affairs (CCA) and Kaohsiung City Government (KCG), Guan Bi-ling, director of the KCG's Department of Information (DOI) said that this upcoming concert will be the first outside of Taiwan's capital performed by any of the three globally recognized world-class tenors. While Luciano Pavarotti had visited Taiwan once and Placido Domingo four times, this is Carreras' fifth visit to Taiwan, bringing the total number of the three tenors' visits to Taiwan to ten. Director Guan said it is significant to arrange this 10th world-class performance in Kaohsiung City other than Taipei where the previous performances had been staged.

Director Guan said that Carreras would hold first concert in Kaohsiung City on October 17 during his stay in Taiwan. This signifies that world-class performances are no longer confined only in Taipei City. She said she believes culture transcends both national boundaries and social classes, and people of all classes can be moved by culture and arts.

Though the sharing of culture transcends national boundaries, Director Guan said, there is inevitably distinction of classes in cultural consumption. Taking world-class performances as an example, she pointed out that other cities in Taiwan than Taipei don't have the conditions and resources needed to guarantee satisfactory box office revenues; therefore, event planners always drag their feet on moving performances outside of Taipei. In the case of Kaohsiung City, due to the less seating capacity of the city's cultural center and to meet the city's special conditions, KCG would ask event planners to cut down on ticket prices. On such circumstances, no other cities, except Taipei City, are capable of holding cultural activities if they are left alone to shoulder the costs without government's funds. That is why performances such as Carreras' concert need the support of the government or the private sector, Director Guan said. And their support is also vital even for Taipei City. Even though Taipei residents in general have higher consuming power so the government's support is not necessarily required, it still needs the support from the private sector. As for Kaohsiung City where the private sector's resources are hard to come by, the government's support is indispensable.

Director Guan pointed out that Carreras' performance in Kaohsiung City would not become a reality without the full support of Tchen Yu-Chiou, chairwoman of the CCA, to whom she is very grateful. In the past, Jose Carreras made it a rule to perform only one concert in Taipei during his stay in Taiwan. Nevertheless, Chairwoman Tchen said world-class concert like Carreras' should be promoted to other cities in Taiwan and so she promised to provide funds to arrange Carreras to sing in Kaohsiung City. To realize this initiative, however, the KCG's support is also required because the CCA's funds alone are not enough. And that's where Director Guan came in as a coordinator for this initiative.

There were many difficulties in materializing this initiative, said Director Guan. She set her mind to make this happen when she first heard of Chairwoman Tchen's proposal this past May to invite Carreras to sing in Kaohsiung. Director Guan then began approaching Mayor Hsieh and other department heads with this idea, to which they all pledged full support. Unfortunately, the KCG's funds budgeted for Carreras' concert in Kaohsiung were used to aid the city's disaster relief work in the wake of the serious flood in July. Without the funds, this initiative might be shelved, Director Guan thought. However, still hopeful and seeing the continuous support of Chairwoman Tchen, Director Guan went to great lengths to seek the support and resources of the private sector. With great efforts and a bit of luck, Director Guan ended up with the huge support of many enterprises and government agencies, including the National Youth Commission, Bank of Kaohsiung, Kaohsiung Ammonia Sulfate Co. Ltd., Taiwan Sugar Corporation, and Taiwan Power Company. Director Guan said that inviting Carreras to sing in Kaohsiung is a significant cultural breakthrough. For a long time, Kaohsiung City has been mistaken as a "cultural desert" where cultural activities are scarce. This is not true, Director Guan said, and in fact people in Kaohsiung have great hopes and demand for cultural activities. The highest ticket price for Carreras' concert in Kaohsiung is NT$4800 (NT$8000 in Taipei), lowered at the request of KCG, and the sales have been strong, with only about 200 tickets left.

Though drastically cut down by the event planner, the ticket prices for the concert in Kaohsiung are still unaffordable for many. Therefore, KCG demands the concert organizer to broadcast live one of the greatest world tenors of modern era right outside the concert hall of the cultural center. In the process of pushing for this concert in Kaohsiung, Director Guan said she learned that the general public as well as the music and academic circles all eagerly look forward to this concert. Most importantly, she discovered "the three tenors of Kaohsiung City"-Wu Hung-chang, Tso Chi-ming, and Wang Hui-ming. They all majored in vocal music in Italy and are now working in the field of music. Wu Hung-chang said that no one could bring such beautiful voice as the three world-class tenors in the next fifty years. Director Guan said that Jose Carreras has prepared an extra song in his repertoire to honor the outdoor live broadcast. The title of the song is "The Prayer," particularly selected by Carreras after learning of the series of Taiwan's recent devastating floods in order to soothe the souls of the people in Kaohsiung and the whole island.

Director Guan cordially invited all citizens to the outdoor live broadcast of the concert on the evening of October 17.

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