Month: November 2018

Opera singer Đào Tố Loan: Hard-working mum wins opera contest

29/11/2018

Opera singer Đào Tố Loan, who started her career from zero, now teaches at the Việt Nam Academy of Music (VNAM). She speaks with Lê Hương after winning first prize at the Singapore Lyric Opera ASEAN Vocal Competition 2018.

Inner Sanctum: Can you tell us more about the contest in Singapore?

The contest takes place every two years in Singapore, where short listed candidates compete in the semi-final and final rounds. Each contestant has to sing three arias in the semi-final and three different arias in the final. But just a few hours before the semi-final, the organisers announced that each contestant had only five minutes to prepare their performance, including an introduction. We were all worried as most of our arias were rather long. Some contestants cut the piano parts from their performances, while I chose short and cheerful arias to sing. During the final round, each contestant had ten minutes to sing two arias – one chosen by the singer, the other chosen by the jury. Sitting in the waiting room, I heard the other contestants sing so well. I thought I had no chance. When it was my turn, the pianist was tired. I kept calm and guided her to follow my voice until the end of the song. When the final round was over, listening to the results, I was extremely nervous. I prayed while the names were announced. Third place was announced, then second. I thought I had lost, then my name was read out as the winner. I burst into tears. I staggered to the stage to collect the prize. I cried a lot. It was like a dream.

Inner Sanctum: What do you think helped you win the contest?

To Loan got cerificate at ASEAN Vocal Competition 2018

I think two factors helped me. The first is patriotism. I was proud to be the only Vietnamese taking part. Secondly, I tried to be unique. I didn’t want to sing like other famous artists. I think the jury recognised that characteristic.

Inner Sanctum: How has your career developed?

I’m currently working as a singer in the Vietnam National Opera and Ballet (VNOB) and a teacher of opera at the VNAM. I started my career from scratch so I understand my students. We shouldn’t force anyone to study art, we should create a free atmosphere for students to follow their passion. When a student succeeds, the efforts made by the teacher and student are equal. My mother died a long time ago. When my older sister entered the Business Management College, I followed her to Hà Nội to attend secondary school. Then I enrolled at an accounting school. At that time I sang pop music. My boyfriend encouraged me to study music further. My family were not passionate about music, and my sister brought me up instead of my parents so life was very difficult at that time. Sometimes, I just ate instant noodles without any meat and tried hard to learn and sing opera. My face was full of acne. At that time opera students had very little opportunity to earn money. I didn’t sing other genres of music for fear that I would spoil my opera skills when they were still developing. Then I graduated from VNAM with distinction in 2014. The same year, I won both first prize and audience’s vote at the Lidal North Opera Workshop in Oslo. Now I can sing other genres. I take all the beautiful features of other genres to put in opera. Opera means that artists should explore to perfect their technique.

To Loan and other singers at the Competition

Inner Sanctum: What do you think about opera singers in Việt Nam? What difficulties do they face?

They face many difficulties. They don’t have many fans and there are few spaces for opera singers to develop their career in Việt Nam. Each opera artist has their own way to overcome such difficulties. For me, my belief and passion have helped me overcome everything.

Inner Sanctum: As a mother and an artist, how do you manage your schedule?

I’m lucky to have a happy family with an understanding husband, who always shares and encourages me to work hard in my life and career.

To me, my duties as a wife, mother, teacher and singer are not too much. My first child was born when I was granted an MA scholarship to study in Italy. I missed this opportunity. Before the contest in Singapore, I sometimes had to hold my second child while practising. I sang high notes while he was sleeping like a log in my arms. I often asked my students to take care of my five-month-old baby while I rehearsed. Luckily my son seems to like opera. Maybe it’s a good way of practising strength – singing while holding a heavy object. My daughter, who is nearly 4 years old, has already started to imitate my voice. My whole family accompanied me to Singapore for the contest. But my husband took care of the children while I was competing. If my children like music, I will help them pursue their passion. Otherwise, I will not force them. Following art is a challenge.

VNS

Dong Quang Vinh: Young Vietnamese, Chinese carrying on traditional friendship

28/11/2018

 “Cooperation” and “optimism” are the key words that Dong Quang Vinh, a Vietnamese musician, used to describe his special bond with China.

Vinh, 31, who studied music in China for nine years, is a bamboo flutist and conductor.

He has been working on a project to combine Vietnamese and Chinese folk music as part of his efforts to promote understanding between the two peoples.

Some 50 km from Hanoi, the Vietnamese capital, a young Chinese volunteer teacher emphasized on “responsibility” and “friendship” when she talked about her experiences in Vietnam.

Dong Quang Vinh conducted the orchestra of VNOB in 2017

“This is my second year of volunteering in Vietnam. I have chosen to stay for the second term as I do not want to leave and disappoint my students,” said Guan Li, 25, who teaches at the Hung Vuong University in Phu Tho Province.

The stories of Vinh and Guan are two examples of the robust and deep people-to-people ties between the two neighboring countries sharing similar culture.

Cooperation, optimism

“When I was a little boy, my father often bought me cassette tapes of Chinese music whenever he went to China for performance tours,” recalled Vinh, who was born to a family of musicians.

Since then, he began to like traditional Chinese musical instruments and found similarities between the folk music of the two countries, thus developing an interest in China.

In 2004, Vinh went to China to study at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. In 2010, he received a full Chinese government scholarship to follow a master course as an orchestra conductor.

Like Vihn, more and more Vietnamese youth are studying in China to pursue their career.

Figures from the Chinese embassy in Hanoi shows there are currently over 14,000 Vietnamese studying in China, while some 3,000-4,000 Chinese come to Vietnam for study each year.

In Vinh’s view, “cooperation” is the key for him to build a career and also find his true love.

In China, Vinh made friends with musicians like Chen Xiaodong, who later worked with Vinh in many musical projects. He even married one of them, Chinese pianist Mo Shuangshuang, who he met in Shanghai and later moved to live in Vietnam with him.

Last August, Vinh and Chen brought the two countries’ music on stage in Hanoi in a high-profile friendship concert, the first official collaboration between the two countries’ traditional music artists in a concert according to Vinh’s knowledge.

Coming to the prospect of cooperation between Vietnam and China, Vinh used the word “optimism.”

“I hope that there will be more exchanges of visits between high-ranking leaders of both countries, thus creating more opportunities for cultural exchanges. I am very optimistic about the future of Vietnam-China relations,” Vinh told Xinhua.

(Chinadaily)

Trailer Nutcracker – Wonder Dream

26/11/2018

We all know and we all love the story of the Nutcracker and Young Clara adventures into her wonderland. But, have you ever considered that, a modern remake with diverse casting, with traditional dance around the world, a combination of classic ballet and Vietnamese traditional dance, could it be better?

Old tale, modern vibrant remake, but not just any modern remake. We make the stories ourselves. Our girl is called Quỳnh Lan, and through her kaleidoscope of Vietnamese culture and dance, she will take you to a land where a border doesn’t exist. We tell our story with a single wish of becoming one, going through dream lands and dream together, with nothing stopping us down. Nothing exists beside pure beauty and connection. We hope this remake helps the divided world right now, to remind us once more that we are all the same, we dream of nothing but love and joy.

All About the Main Female Character in the Nutcracker Ballet

22/11/2018

Is Clara the name of the main female character in the Nutcracker ballet? In some references, the young heroine is referred to as “Marie” or “Masha.” Is her name really Clara, Marie or Masha?

What is interesting is the answer varies with who you ask, and who is developing the production. The answer can vary widely, although, most agree “Clara,” is the popular answer.

The Main Female Character of The Nutcracker

Thu Huệ is one of the solist in Nut Cracker – A wonder land version 2018 by VNOB

In most versions of the popular holiday ballet The Nutcracker, the young girl who falls asleep and dreams about a prince is named Clara. As the curtain opens, the wealthy Staulbahm family, including young children Clara and Fritz, is busily preparing for their annual Christmas Eve party. Clara and Fritz are anxiously awaiting the arrival of several invited guests.

Portraying the role of Clara in the Nutcracker is an aspiration of many young ballerinas. Most ballet companies choose the role of Clara and other main characters during ​auditions several weeks before the performance.

The Original Nutcracker

The original tale of The Nutcracker is based on a libretto by E.T.A. Hoffman titled “Der Nussnacker und der Mausekonig,” or “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.” The score was written by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. It was originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov. It premiered at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg on Sunday, December 18, 1892, to extremely mixed reviews and criticism.

In the original story, Clara is not the Stahlbaum’s cherished daughter but an unloved and neglected orphan. Somewhat like Cinderella, Clara is required to do chores in the household that usually go unappreciated.

The 1847 Version of The Nutcracker

In 1847, famous French author Alexandre Dumas rewrote Hoffman’s story, removing some of its darker elements and changing the name of Clara. He chose to refer to Clara as “Marie.” Because The Nutcracker ballet developed from two versions of a single book, the lead role of the story is sometimes named “Clara” and sometimes “Marie.” However, in most ballet versions of the story, the little girl who dreams of a living nutcracker is referred to as “Clara.”

Later Popular Versions of The Nutcracker

The main female character is called “Marie” in choreographer George Balanchine’s 1954 production of the ballet, “Maria” in the Bolshoi Ballet version and “Masha” in other Russian productions of it.

In some productions (including the famous Balanchine version staged by the New York City Ballet), she is a little girl about ten years old, and in other productions, such as the Baryshnikov one for the American Ballet Theater, she is a girl in her middle to late teens.

In the 1968 Covent Garden production starring Rudolf Nureyev for the Royal Ballet, the main character was named “Clara.”

In the 1986 film, the “Nutcracker: The Motion Picture,” the entire story of the ballet is seen through the eyes of an aged Clara, who is the offscreen narrator throughout the movie.

How The Nutcracker became so wildly popular

20/11/2018

The Nutcracker is the cheesiest ballet of all time.

That may enrage some readers for whom attending The Nutcracker is a beloved Christmastime tradition. But as a former dancer who has performed or watched some version of the production for 18 years now, I can state it with certainty: The Nutcracker is the cheesiest ballet of all time.

Just try to recite the plot with a straight face: A young girl’s most cherished Christmas present, a nutcracker, comes alive, saves her by defeating an army of mice and their king, and then the pair travel together to a magical kingdom of sweets. Ballet really doesn’t get more gauche than that.

So why is it so popular in America? To answer that, we’ll have to go back in history a bit.

Thu Huệ is one of the solist in Nut Cracker – A wonder land version 2018 by VNOB

 

In 1844, French writer Alexandre Dumas adapted an earlier, darker version of The Nutcracker by E.T.A. Hoffman that had been intended strictly for adults, making it “happier and more appropriate for children.” The master of the Russian Imperial Ballet liked Dumas’ new, lighter version of the story and decided to transform it into a ballet, commissioning Peter Ilyitch Tschaikovsky to compose the score, now some of the most recognizable pieces of music in the world.

Many years later, in 1933, Russian-born choreographer George Balanchine was invited to the United States by a young arts patron who shared Balanchine’s conviction that high quality dance training was severely lacking in this country. They co-founded a ballet school, and in 1948, the now world famous New York City Ballet.

As a young dancer in Russia, Balanchine had performed several different roles in The Nutcracker — a mouse, the Nutcracker/Little Prince, and the Mouse King. When he was older, he danced the part of the jester, which involves gracefully wielding and jumping through a large hoop.

A scence in Nut Cracker – A wonder land version 2018 of VNOB

In 1954, Balanchine, who today is revered as the “Father of American Ballet,” decided to choreograph his own version of The Nutcracker. While a smart business decision, it was also a deeply emotional one. As Vanity Fairreports:

He was not just reaching back to the Mariinsky Nutcracker — which in Russia is performed throughout the year — but calling up the Christmases of his childhood, the sense of warmth and plenty that was embodied in a tree brimming with fruits and chocolates, glittering with tinsel and paper angels. “For me Christmas was something extraordinary,” Balanchine told the writer Solomon Volkov. “On Christmas night we had only the family at home: mother, auntie, and the children. And, of course, the Christmas tree. [Vanity Fair]

When asked by a donor years before if he would be interested in doing a popular abridgement of The Nutcracker, Balanchine answered, “If I do anything, it will be full-length and expensive.” That donor ultimately gave him $40,000 — $25,000 of which he spent on the giant tree that trademarks the New York City Ballet’s adaptation to this day. When he received pushback on the astronomical expense of the Christmas foliage, he simply responded, “The Nutcracker is the tree.”

Balanchine was right. The magic of The Nutcracker isn’t in the brilliance of the music or the excellence of the dancing. It’s the tree. It’s the juvenile warmth of the excited children in the party scene. It’s the familiarity of the whole production, even if you’re just seeing it for the first time. It’s the ballet’s ability to reach out and touch a part of you that triggers a warm holiday memory — that’s The Nutcracker.

Before The Nutcracker, the future of the New York City Ballet was still uncertain — and while many people were excited about the kind of “deeply poetic, uniquely plotless, modestly decorated ballets” Balanchine was known for making, the company did not possess the kind of “mainstream” following needed to consistently fill the house. The Nutcracker changed that.

Kids were another secret weapon.

There are a slew of parts for young dancers in The Nutcracker, and in many of Balanchine’s big productions. He believed it was important to have kids on stage for a few reasons. First, it helps children in the audience connect with the ballet. Second, very astutely, Balanchine reportedly surmised that “each child brings four people: mom, dad, sister, and aunt. Multiply this by all the children in the ballet and you have an audience.”

The first production, giant tree and all, ended up costing $80,000, but it was a blockbuster hit within the year. Since then, the ballet has been filmed and broadcast hundreds of times to people all over the world.

The NYCB performs The Nutcracker 47 times each season, but countless professional, amateur, and juvenile companies all over the country perform some version of the holiday special. The hundreds of adaptations have also given rise to new, even cheesier characters — like butchers, dancing pigs, and shepherdesses complete with lambs in the particular version I grew up with.

In many ways, The Nutcracker rallies against what a ballet is supposed to be — graceful and high-brow — (and truly there is nothing elegant about a sprightly young woman in pointe shoes wildly waving a fake plastic sword while dressed in a pear-shaped mouse costume) but that’s exactly the spirit from which The Nutcracker draws its enchantment.

(The week.com)

“Maria de Buenos Aires” will be staged in Hanoi on Nov 15

15/11/2018

Tango opera “Maria de Buenos Aires”, written by Astor Piazzolla, will be performed at the Hanoi Opera House on November 15, starting at 8 p.m.

“Maria de Buenos Aires” tells the story of a girl called Maria who lives in Argentina. Born in a poor suburb of Buenos Aires, Maria is marginalized as an object of sexual desire. During the hard moments in her life, she eventually falls in love with Tango. The story follows her life and death, dissolves into the beauty of the Buenos Aires women and the immortal Tango dance.

Solist, Orchestra and Conductor are discussing the idea of the Oprea

 

 

“Maria de Buenos Aires” is considered as a declaration of New Tango, in which Tango is used as a musical material to make the Opera. The accompanying ensemble, including strings, guitar, piano and copious percussion, is based on the traditional tango orchestra.

dancers of VNOV are practising the Opera

“Maria is the tango. She is the history and heart and soul of Argentina. She is the subject that inspires and animates the poetry of Horacio Ferrer and lives vibrantly in tandem with the inventive and inspired music of Astor Piazzolla,” said Emeritus Artist Tran Ly Ly, director of the Vietnam National Opera and Ballet.

Tickets cost VND200,000 to VND600,000 and can be purchased at the Hanoi Opera House or on ticketvn.com, nhahatnhacvukichvietnam.com.

The Sound of Tango, the Story of Mary

01/11/2018

There was no piano in Astor Piazzolla’s vacation home in Parque del Plata, Uruguay, where he spent the summer of 1968 working with the poet Horacio Ferrer on an operita, a “little opera,” so he composed on the bandoneón. The resulting work, “María de Buenos Aires,” is an intense cocktail of poetry, tango music and dance that is performed by a folk contralto, an operatic baritone and one male actor. But it’s the fourth voice — the bandoneón, the soulful South American accordion — that calls the shots and, to borrow Ferrer’s words, “burns in the back of your throat.”

It was appropriate, then — and a sign of the substantial Argentine contingent among the capacity audience in Le Poisson Rouge on Friday evening — that the applause at the end of Opera Hispánica’s production of “María” was loudest for the bandoneónist J P Jofre, who took his bow last. The production, directed by Beth Greenberg, was billed as the first fully staged one to be presented by Opera Hispánica, which is now in its third season. Most of the nightclub’s narrow stage, however, was taken up by the excellent nine-member band, conducted by Jorge Parodi, leaving the singers and dancers to stalk one another on just a few claustrophobic square feet of space.

But then, it’s in the nature of tango to express oversize passions with a rigorous economy of gesture. And despite its limitations, Opera Hispánica’s production was an elegant tribute to Piazzolla’s and Ferrer’s ability to combine music, movement and words of hallucinatory power in a concentrated format that is as pungent and stimulating as a cup of espresso.

The work is more of an oratorio than an opera. Written in the key of “Ay! minor” (Ferrer’s libretto is laced with musical puns), it’s a Passion play in which the central character, María, represents both Jesus and the Virgin. She sleepwalks through scenes of sexual violence, her burial and dreamlike confessions to a chorus of psychoanalysts until, resurrected, she gives birth to a new version of herself.

New York Time