HCMC – It is with enormous pleasure that HBSO is able to announce a resumption of its concert schedule in the Saigon Opera House. The first concert will take place on September 26, beginning at 8 p.m.
It is a medley of operatic arias and instrumental pieces, featuring the HBSO chorus, orchestra and renowned soloists.
The program opens with the overture to Rossini’s famous comic opera The Barber of Seville, and this will be followed by an item from Verdi’s opera A Masked Ball, Saper vorreste. It’s sung by Oscar, a pageboy whose role is always sung by a woman, a soprano, dressed as a man. In Saigon this will be Hong Vy.
Next comes an aria from Johann Strauss’s The Gipsy Baron, sung by the HBSO baritone Dao Mac.
This will be followed by the beloved Intermezzo from Mascagni’s one-act opera Cavalleria Rusticana, played by the orchestra alone.
Next come two very famous pieces, both sung by HBSO tenor Pham Trang. The first is Possente amor from Verdi’s Rigoletto and the second Nessum Dorma from Puccini’s Turandot. Both are accompanied by the HBSO Chorus as well as the orchestra.
In the former the licentious Duke rejoices that his minions have captured Rigoletto’s daughter Gilda, and in the second the tenor Calaf announces that none shall sleep until they have discovered his name.
Die Csardasfutstin (The Gipsy Princess) by the Hungarian composer Emmerich Kalman was premiered in 1915 in Vienna. The aria from it, sung by soprano soloist and chorus, will be performed by Duyen Huyen and the HBSO Chorus.
The first half of the concert concludes with the “Brindisi”, a drinking song, from Verdi’s La Traviata, with just about everybody taking part.
In a break from opera the second half begins with Beethoven’s Romance for Violin and Orchestra in F, with Tang Thanh Nam as soloist.
Then come pieces by Gounod, Bizet, Rossini and Offenbach. From Gounod’s opera Romeo and Juliet we will hear Juliet’s aria Je veux vivre (I would live) sung by Thu Huong. Family members urge her to marry but Juliet replies, in the rhythm of a waltz, that she would rather live in her dream.
Then comes Je suis Escamillo from Bizet’s Carmen, in which the bullfighter Escamillo confronts the romantic hero Jose. The soloists will be Thanh Tam and Thanh Nam.
From Rossini’s opera The Barber of Seville comes the aria Un voce poco fa sung by Pham Khanh Ngoc. In it the soprano Rosina, who had earlier appeared married in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, contemplates her situation.
The Barcarolle from Offenbach’s opera The Tales of Hoffman will be performed by the HBSO Chorus. A barcarolle is a traditional song sung by Venetian gondoliers.
Finally, or perhaps almost finally, comes another drinking song, Viva il vino, this time from Cavalleria Rusticana, with Trung Kiet and Chorus.
The concert will be conducted by Tran Nhat Minh, and ticket prices are from VND300,000 to VND650,000, with a concession of VND80,000 for students on production of a student card.
By Bradley Winterton
