KVT – A Glorious Silken Moment
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Thirty wonderful minutes at the Opera House last weekend.
The lights dimmed. The curtain opened to show a young man ready to let a lantern fly into the night sky and the magic began.
And oh what magic! Bach cello suites poured through the auditorium: music like sweet honey… music to weave through warm spring evenings and softly misting mua xuan…. glorious choreography… glorious dance… glorious lanterns…
Magic is magic and needn’t be elaborated on.
If only I could afford it I’d pay cellist Yo Yo Ma to accompany these wonderful dancers, live, in Bamboo Rain and Heart of Silk. What a world class celebration of contemporary dance we’d have.
Imagine them dancing on the bamboo set of last week’s Bridge in Gia Lam!
I’d pay top dollar to see the company dance a week season of Bamboo Rain, Heart of Silk, Amnesia and The Firebird. I’d pay top Euros to see Spartacus again and again if it was given a good stage set.
If I’d realized that the dance came last on the program I’d have waited until interval to get to Nha Hat Lon. The National Opera and Ballet Orchestra always makes me feel nervous but when the orchestra started the Anvil Chorus from Il Trovatore, I was amazed. They were quite good and the Vietnam National Opera and Ballet choir was in beautiful voice, so I relaxed. When things began to go strange in the string section at the beginning of the soprano’s aria from Madam Butterfly I grinned and stayed relaxed. They played beautifully for the Toreador’s aria from Carmen and the baritone was believable.
Then when Luu Hong Quang sat at the grand piano for Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No1, the orchestra was in top form and played Pytor Illich’s opening bars almost perfectly… but somehow they lost him and spent almost three movements desperately searching for him until, just as the pianist was ready to pound out the last few bars, Tchaikovsky was discovered again and the concerto thundered to a fitting finale.
Before the dance the Choir gave us a lovely bit of Beethoven translated into Tieng Viet, hummed a bit of Saint Saens and ended with a lovely Ave Maria that gave the sopranos a lot of room to show off their vocal range.
Then… the orchestra pit opened and I thought… My goodness the orchestra is going to play for the ballet! I got up ready to flee but realized it was the piano being lowered below stage level.
The lights dimmed. The curtain opened to show a young man ready to let a lantern fly into the night sky and magic began…
| Not a reviewer, not a critic, “Kiếm Văn Tìm” is an interested, impartial and informed observer and connoisseur of the Hanoi art scene who offers highly opinionated remarks and is part of the long and venerable tradition of anonymous correspondents. Please add your thoughts in the comment field below. |
I am surprised at you KTV! I greatly respect your articles and frank commentary on the Hanoi arts scene. Your musical knowledge and wisdom on the local scene is also much admired. But you can’t tell a flute from a cello? You can’t tell a Cello suite from a Brandenburg?
This may be a minor point and it is not your job to give us this sort of information which should have been in the programme, but the music for your “glorious silken moment” was the Brandenburg Concerto Number 4, (which doesn’t have a cello solo in sight! Rather two flutes and a violin)
But the point of this comment is not to show off musical background knowledge but to express concern at some of your other “highly opinionated” remarks. If you make such basic factual errors, then maybe some of your other coments should be more critically examined too.
Something else surprised me about your article. You would rather watch ballet and contemporary dance to the accompaniment of recorded music blaring out of loudspeakers in the beautiful Hanoi Opera House, instead of the real thing!? Why wasn’t your comment “if only we could have had live music soaring out of the pit after the piano disappeared”. Or something to that effect.
Maybe the VNOB would have struggled with the Brandenburg – and yes, they were pretty ropey in the Tschaikovsky! And maybe the VNSO would have been able to do a better job. (They do get paid three times as much as the VNOB, though, so perhaps they should do a better job!)
Let’s give credit where credit is due and cut the VNOB orchestra some slack! Have they never done a good job accompanying ballet, and indeed full length opera. (Something the VNSO would feel is below their status!) The VNOB needs encouragement and support for the work they do in bringing some great mixed programmes to audiences (both ex-pat and Vietnamese), many of whom are just starting out on their classical musical journeys.
Does Hanoi really need a cycle of Mahler symphonies at this stage in its development?)
Yes the VNOB is not yet consistent in its quality, but with a bit of support and goodwill they can only get better. A bit more money wouldn’t be a bad idea either – to enable the musicians’ earnings to rise at least up the level of the road sweepers we see outside our houses every day.
But dear KTV – carry on the good work. The arts in Vietnam needs criticism like yours too.