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Against all odds, the Hong Kong Arts Festival is going ahead this year and has even managed to come up with some compelling online programmes despite widespread, pandemic-induced Zoom exhaustion.

After last year’s devastating and complete cancellation of the entire festival, the full line-up revealed on Thursday has a total of 33 shows in February and March. About half of them are scheduled for physical, in-venue performances in Hong Kong, while the rest will be delivered virtually, ensuring that the show will go on even if there are further venue closures.

Organisers are keeping their fingers crossed that public performances can resume after Chinese New Year. With travel restrictions still in place, the in-venue highlights are inevitably focused on local performers – though International Tchaikovsky Competition laureate Edgar Moreau will be flying in to perform Haydn’s Cello Concerto No. 1 with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, under the baton of Christoph Poppen, in a programme that also includes Beethoven’s Eroica symphony.

One of a number of festival commissions this year is an intriguing double bill. It includes a contemporary Cantonese opera based on the classic novel Journey to the West, and a Cantonese chamber opera called Women Like Us, which is based on two of local author Xi Xi’s short stories. Don’t expect a fairy-tale “happily ever after” ending in these two works, directed by Ata Wong Chun-tat and Olivia Yan Wing-pui, respectively.

Another world premiere is the children’s opera Alice in Wonderland, composed by Pierangelo Valtinoni for the Zürich Opera and Hong Kong’s Yip’s Children’s Choir. Lewis Carroll’s topsy-turvy fantasy seems to strike a chord with the pandemic having turned our whole world upside down – it is also the subject of an upcoming exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and inspired a virtual opera produced by White Snake Projects in the US last October. For the Hong Kong production, Yip Wing-sie will conduct the children’s choir founded by her father, while the set and choreography will be overseen by the multitalented designer Kelly Lo.

Unusually for Hong Kong, audiences will have a chance to see a work in progress: a Cantonese-language musical that has been commissioned for next year’s 50th edition of the arts festival that is based on the early life of Sun Yat-sen, which pairs film-score veteran Peter Kam Pui-Tat with script writer Sunny Chan Wing-san.

Also set to appear on stage is a rerun of the 2010 evangelical Cantonese opera Noah’s Ark and a series of dynamic performances marking the 10th anniversary of the Hong Kong Jockey Club Contemporary Dance Series.

The only non-local production taking place in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre this year is the screening of Matthew Bourne’s ballet film The Red Shoes. This is a recording of a live performance at Sadler’s Wells in London with ballerina Ashley Shaw in the lead role that won Bourne two Olivier Awards in 2017. The sumptuous and dramatic adaptation of the 1948 film classic of the same name deserves to be seen on the big screen.

The festival has also arranged for three other Bourne films to be viewed on your own devices for free: Swan Lake, Cinderella and Romeo & Juliet. These three films and other watch-on-your-own, pre-recorded performances from the National Theatre Brno and the Igor Moiseyev State Academic Ensemble of Popular Dance are all free. However, registration is required for these timed broadcasts and there may be a limited quota.

The festival is experimenting with ticketed online live shows, too. There will be plenty of interaction between the audience and illusionist and mentalist Scott Silven, even though he is staying in his own home in rural Scotland. Performing to a limited audience of 30 participants per show from March 2-14, Silven promises to read your mind and connect you to his own past and a shared future.

There will also be a live performance by six actors from six locations in six continents in a chilling adaptation of Albert Camus’ novel The Plague. This English-language production, written by British playwright Neil Bartlett, premiered in 2017 but is eerily relevant to current times – the actors are survivors who are testifying before a tribunal after a deadly plague had killed a large part of the population. The production that will be streamed for Hong Kong is directed by Wang Chong, founder of Beijing’s avant-garde Théatre du Rêve Expérimental. A Cantonese version with an all-female cast, directed by Chan Tai-yin, will be performed on stage at the Hong Kong Arts Centre’s Shouson Theatre from February 26 to March 2.

Tisa Ho Kar-kuan, executive director of the festival, says that the meaning of great art has become more apparent during this period of isolation. The festival’s tagline this year, “Separate Together”, describes how each of us responds to a performance in our own unique way, bringing to that response our personal histories, education, values and concerns, she says.

“And yet, when it all comes together in a great performance, the art can bring us all together, to be moved, excited and uplifted, all in the same moment, across time and space, and cultures, highlighting our shared humanity,” she says.

Visit the Hong Kong Arts Festival website for details. Ticket bookings and online registrations for free programmes will be begin on a first-come-first-served basis from 10am on February 2.

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