VietNamNet Bridge – Viet Nam's opera lovers will be treated to
some classic melodies this weekend, when the first opera Co Sao (Ms Sao)
featuring the country's 20th century revolutionary music by celebrated composer
Do Nhuan is performed at the Ha Noi Opera House.
The show also commemorates the
author's 90th birthday anniversary and 55th anniversary of the Viet Nam's
Composers' Association that Nhuan was general secretary of from its 1957
inception until 1983.
The opera was first staged in
1965 and revived in 1976. Since then, due to various objective reasons,
composer Nhuan's general musical arrangement for the play has been lost.
Nhuan's son, composer Do Hong Quan and current chairman of the association, has
recently found the hand-written draft from 1960, as well as some summarised
pieces and additional arias [pieces of solo singing]. In total, Quan has
recovered nearly 1,000 pages of original music for the show.
"I have worked with composer
Phan Anh to rewrite all the pieces and then complete the show by combining it
with all that we have left today," Quan told Viet Nam News.
"I was surprised and
impressed even more by my father because at that time my dad was only 40 and he
wrote more than 1,000 pages of musical background, before instrumenting it for
a symphony orchestra.
"My father also composed
lyrics and a story for the opera. In the hand-writing draft, he also sketched
the images of some characters as he imagined them," Quan said.
For this third staging, the opera
has remained true to the original version with three parts over the two hours,
unlike the second performance on September 2, 1976 to celebrate the unification
of the north and the south, when it was cut down into a short play.
The opera tells the story Lo Thi
Sao, an ethnic Thai woman living in the northeast mountainous area of Viet Nam.
Sao was an orphan and suffered various injustices at the hands of the local
ruling colonial powers until she met political activists, who gradually
persuaded her to follow a revolutionary path against the French colonialists.
In the story, Sao makes
considerable contributions to her homeland's liberation after the historic
August Revolution in 1945, which led to Viet Nam's independence from France.
In the upcoming show, the main
characters will be played by sopranos voice Ha Thi Thang Long and To Loan for
the role of Sao, baritone Manh Dung as political prisoner Hong Ha, and nearly
200 other artists from the Viet Nam Orchestra and Ballet Theatre.
"I believe that the talents
of the singers, who play key roles in the performance, will contribute to our
success," Quan said, "They have followed classical music training,
even while it was unfashionable to do so.
"It's high time for us to
balance the importance of all music forms to keep great value [classical opera]
in the spotlight."
Quan added that besides
experienced faces like Japanese conductor Tetsuji Honna, Vietnamese conductor
Manh Chung directing the choir and Vietnamese choreographer Nguyen Anh Phuong,
the opera gathered a new generation of artists for what has been described as
an "adventure".
Huyen Nga, a young director of
the theatre who has chosen to study the opera for her college graduation
thesis, has been working as the show's theatrical director.
"It's my great honour as
well as a challenging task for me," she said, "I hope with the
co-operation of other artists, I can contribute something."
"Our team have practised for
months now," said soprano Long, "Though we don't have to sing in a
foreign language like in other operas, it is still challenging to us as it is a
real classical opera with very complicated musical notes."
The opera will be performed at Ha
Noi's Opera House this Saturday and Sunday at 8pm, with the Saturday show
broadcast live on VTV1 channel.
Composer Do Nhuan was born in
1922 in the northern province of Hai Duong. He then moved to the coastal city
of Hai Phong to live with his parents, where he joined a scout team at age 14,
where he learned Western music. He also taught himself traditional music and
could play various instruments such as the bamboo flute, monochord and
two-chord guitar.
Nhuan composed his first song
Trung Vuong (Trung Queens) at 17.
Nhuan also engaged in
revolutionary activities and was imprisoned by the French in 1943.
He was among the first Vietnamese
composers to gain musical training at the Tchaikovski Music Academy in Russia
between 1959-62.
He has been awarded with the Ho
Chi Minh Prize for Literature and Arts plus other high-ranking honours.
VietNamNet/VNS
Business & Investment Opportunities
YourVietnamExpert is a division of Saigon Business Corporation Pte Ltd (SBC), Incorporated in Singapore since 1994. As Your Business Companion, we propose a range of services in Strategy, Investment and Management, focusing Healthcare and Life Science with expertise in ASEAN. Since we are currently changing the platform of www.yourvietnamexpert.com, if any request, please, contact directly Dr Christian SIODMAK, business strategist, owner and CEO of SBC at christian.siodmak@gmail.com. Many thanks.
No comments:
Post a Comment