KVT – Grand and Gorgeous

Saturday was a great night at the Opera House… The audience was a great mixture of ballet fans anxious to see some new works by expert Danish choreographers; tourists anxious to see anything at all in the grand old building; lots of Mums, a few Dads, sisters and some brothers, Grannies, Aunties and cousins anxious to see a bevy of young up and coming dancers in their public ballet debut; and a lot of fans and relatives of the very personable and talented Vietnamese solo pianist.

As soon as you suspended your expectations of music etiquette and went along with the vibes of excited expectation hanging in the air you were in for a great and grand night.

Pre Interval

The Overture was everything an overture was ever expected to be when overtures were invented – an attempt to give a gabbling crowd a chance to stop chattering, hawking, coughing (and in today’s parlance, texting and phoning) – and 9 minutes of Strauss’s ‘Die Fledermause’ was lively enough to just about settle everyone down, even the wriggling children

Pianist, Tran Thi Tam Ngoc, was a shimmer in white and you warmed to her smile as soon as she appeared on stage and any misgivings that such a slight, and seemingly too young, could possibly play a 3 movement concerto were smashed as she settled into MacDowell’s Piano Concerto No.2. It was a surprising choice as I thought the audience would have preferred something more well known from the romantic repertoire, say an oft played Tchaikovsky or Chopin, but the little known MacDowell concerto was so gorgeously played that the audience was quite spell bound. You realized that the many overseas competition prizes she has won were deserved and that her many years studying at the Boston Conservatory have been well utilized. Her graciousness and good humor in her acceptance of the mountain of bouquets thrust upon her was another winning attribute

I hope she becomes a regular on the concert and recital platforms in Hanoi

The Vietnam National Opera and Ballet Orchestra played cohesively under the baton of Nguyen Thieu Hoa. The strings are becoming really delightful to listen to and the occasional wobbly bits by the brass and woodwinds were easy to forgive.

Post Interval

When you see the National Ballet Company dance really well then you wend you way home with a huge smile on you face….After Saturday’s pieces I was grinning with satisfaction, wider than Alice in Wonderland’s Cheshire cat.

Two Danish dance experts from the Royal Danish Ballet, Frank Andersen and Eva Kloborg choreographed two pieces in the style of August Bouronville (1805-1879) whose dance techniques remain an essential part of the fabric of dance at the RDB.

The first 20 minute dance, ‘Conservatory-1849’, was a stagey re-enactment of a typical Bouronville class. It gave the principal dancers the chance to showcase themselves and gave members of the corps de ballet classical movements that were far more demanding than the static poses we too often see assigned to them in hoary old chestnuts like their ‘Chopiniana’. Bouronville was one of the first choreographers to create strong male roles and movements and the males in this company are indeed capable and strong.

The adolescent troupe- that were an essential part of the piece- gave a delightful insight to the future talents available to the company. The high side kicks by the boys were spectacular.

The second piece, ‘Flower Festival’, a pas de deux by Bouronville was danced almost too beautifully and very beguilingly and energetically by Chi Thanh and Quynh Nga. It was worth the cost of admission all by itself. The body lines fused by the two dancers were really beautiful and very memorable. A bravura performance that restored my faith in the Company’s ability to delve into the classical repertoire.

I’ve long extolled their grand performances when they venture into contemporary realms. The women come into their own and the men become superb.

Saturday gave us another episode of ‘Heart of Silk’ which I’ve seen four times and can hardly wait for the fifth. It’s almost the company’s signature piece. Combine Bach with lit, oriental silk lanterns afloat in a new moon sky and stunning modern choreography that is so very attuned to the dancers and you have 20 minutes of sheer delight that leaves new comers to the ballet gasping in wonder… as was the family of Singaporean tourists near me.

And the audience was taken in by all three pieces. The grannies and old aunties surrounding me were spellbound and a smallish girl sitting behind me very firmly told her talkative father that he if he didn’t shut up she’d pinch him as hard as she could. And shut up he did!

That’s what I call brilliant ballet behavior.

A trip to the mountains mean I’m going to miss two unmissable contemporary dance performances next week but free tickets are avaiable at Goethe or The British Council for dance fans.

And the great Danes were more than brilliant in their sponsoring of this event