BACKSTAGE IN HONG KONG A LIFE WITH THE Format: Paperback

After 50 momentous years, little is remembered of the chaos the Hong Kong Philharmonic faced in its early days as a professional outfit. John Duffus arrived in Hong Kong in 1979 as its fifth general manager in as many years.

In this entertaining memoir he highlights those problems and illustrates how, with typical Scottish grit and determination, he helped get the orchestra on the road as an international ensemble.

John's subsequent concerts as a Hong Kong impresario with superstars Luciano Pavarotti, José Carreras, Plácido Domingo, Kiri Te Kanawa, Yo-Yo Ma and many others – including pop icons Dionne Warwick and Olivia Newton-John – make for fascinating and occasionally shocking stories, as do the almost unbelievable backstage dramas he reveals while managing Andrew Lloyd Webber's Asian companies and bringing CATS and Phantom of the Opera to Hong Kong. Most of the details in this book have never before been published.

With a ten-year background at the BBC in London and with Scottish Opera, John Duffus arrived in Hong Kong in 1979 as the most experienced performing arts manager then to work in the city. He had been appointed the fifth general manager of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra in as many years. It celebrated its 50th anniversary as a professional ensemble in 2024, and has now developed as the finest in Asia.

The early years of the Philharmonic were full of problems and many disasters. A first-class honours Music graduate, Duffus had come to Hong Kong with a brief to solve these issues and set the orchestra on an international footing. He overcame most of them, helping the Philharmonic become a true community orchestra with a growing international reputation.

Remaining in Hong Kong after eight years with the Philharmonic, he describes more adventures presenting concerts around Asia with such artists as Pavarotti, Domingo, Carreras, Kiri Te Kanawa, Isaac Stern and a host of others. He organised the spectacular Three Tenors concert in Beijing’s Forbidden City in 2001 and Pavarotti’s final concert before a paying public in 2005.

As managing director of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Asian companies, he helped bring Broadway-style musical productions to Hong Kong. He later established his own arts consultancy working with the Hong Kong Tourist Association and at the start of the West Kowloon Cultural District, both requiring much problem-solving.