HCMC – Vietnam Premiere Opera “La Vie Parisienne”

19 and 20 Nov 2016, 8 pm
HCMC Opera House

From the organizer:

Ho Chi Minh City Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera (HBSO) proudly presents to our classical music lovers a comic opera, one of the most well-known works of this genre – “La Vie Parisienne” (Parisian Life) from the French composer Jacques Offenbach.

Composed in 1866, La Vie Parisienne has been performed until the present days with many different styles of staging and setting, ranging from classical to modern. Even though the characters are from the second half of the 19th century, the jokes and the romantic plots are still applied after more than 100 years. “La Vie Parisienne” became the inspiration for many directors, artists to restage the work with differerent experiments on a story that never gets old. In 1997, on the occasion of the Francophonie Summit, this work was staged by the French specialist together with the artists from Vietnam National Opera Ballet in Hanoi. It was performed in Vietnamese language, taking the classical style. HBSO will perform the songs in this work in its original language, French, with Vietnamese dialogue and English subtitles.

Content of the opera:

“La Vie Parisienne” revolves around the jokes, pranks, and flirts of the two middle-class Parisienne men: Bobinet and Gardefeu. Both of them once loved a girl named Metella, but found out they were played by her since they saw her with another rich man. Consequently, Bobinet and Gardefeu feel resentment towards the aristocratic upper-class men and intend to humiliate them. The opportunity comes when they meet the Baron Gondremarck from Sweden traveling to Paris. The two Parisienne men brought their noble guests to the glamorous “Parisian life” but in fact it is a fraud; there, all the fashionable nobles, the admiral, or the elegant widow of a colonel are just the chambermaids, the glover, and the boot maker…

Accompanied by the incredibly charismatic music, “La Vie Parisienne” shows the audience a funny storyline with its peak when the characters are tricked and twisted into each other’s mislead.

When “La Vie Parisienne” was initially introduced, there were many opinions on the opposites. Journalists and spectators at that time not only enjoyed the humourous details, interesting characters and catchy music, but also felt pity for the unfold of the realities, especially from the nobles: those people were just shown as a moral role models, soon revealed to be frivolous, coming to Paris to look for amorous adventure.

Music: Jacques Offenbach
Libretto: Henri Meilhac & Ludovic Halévy

Bobinet: Võ Nguyễn Thành Tâm
Raoul de Gardefeu: Phan Hữu Trung Kiệt
Métella: Phạm Duyên Huyền
Le Baron de Gondremarck: Đào Mác
La Baronne de Gondremarck: Nguyễn Thu Hường
Gontran: Đinh Trung Kiên
The Brazilian: Vũ Minh Trí
Frick: Bùi Danh Hùng
Gabrielle: Phạm Khánh Ngọc
Pauline: Lý Hoàng Kim

Performing: HBSO Opera, Ballet & Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Patrick Souillot
Stage Director: Tây Phong

About the genre:
“La Vie Parisienne” are classified as operetta, comes from opera comique – is a genre of French opera in the middle of 19th Century, can be understood as a soft opera, with light content and music. Most operettas have humorous content with the purpose entertaining the audience. Operetta develops strongly in France, with the most well-known composer Jacques Offenbach. Offenbach’s operas are very famous with a distinctive style which almost can form a genre, named opera-bouffe.

Operetta is the genre that paved the way for the formation of the modern style nowadays, the so-called Musical, with Broadway (US), West End (UK), and comedie musicale (France).

Jacques Offenbach is a German-born French composer, a respected name in French classical music. He was born in Cologne (German) in 1819 and passed away in Paris, 1880. With more than 100 operettas, he is credited for bringing the genre up a peak with stylistic model for storytelling and music. Apart from the popular “La Vie Parisienne”, Jacques Offenbach has many other works that become classics while exploring legendary topics such as Orphée aux enfers (Orpheus in the Underworld), La Belle Hélène, Les Contes d’Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann)…

Opera “La Vie Parisienne” was composed by Offenbach with the libretto by Henri Meilhac và Ludovic Halévy.

HBSO’s Production in 2016
Following the success of the operas and concerts recently, HBSO presents opera bouffe “La Vie Parisienne” in two days, November 19th and 20th, 2016. The opera will gather HBSO’s most prominent names, such as: soprano Phạm Khánh Ngọc – who recently won the second place in the 1st Asean Vocal Contest; tenore Nam Khánh; baritone Đào Mác – who left strong impression from the opera The Magic Flute by Mozart. Soprano Duyên Huyền – who was also successful in the role of Pamina in The Magic Flute – will be Metella, a Parisian girl with complicated love affairs and the centre of the opera. Soprano Lý Hoàng Kim recently got the main role Gia Huong in the musical “the Story of Giang Huong” will play the beautiful and sexy Pauline.

The highlight of HBSO’s production is bringing a Parisian storyline in 19th century to the modern life with the mixture of timeless factors, shown in costumes, settings, and characters’ manners. The audience will get a feeling of witnessing a modern story, but still recalling details of the space from more than 100 years ago. The way the opera is staged will be towards the modern style such as Broadway, with fast tempo together with lively singing and dancing, colourful costumes and unique stage design.

Director
HBSO has invited a director with newly fresh ideas to stage the opera in a unique way. Director Tây Phong has graduated HCMC Conservatory of Music with Bachelor degree in Vocal as well as Movie and Stage University with Stage Director degree; and is pursuing his post-graduate programme in Music education. Tây Phong has joined many vocal and acting trainings for theatre projects in HCMC and implemented number of contemporary arts exchange. He used to be the lead singer of the rock band The Containers that won the First place of Battle of the Bands 2011. Tây Phong once impressed the audience from his graduation play “The Misunderstanding” by Albert Camus when he had the characters of play appearing as insect robots.
Tây Phong chose a comtemporary style of staging for the opera La Vie Parisienne which the stage is constantly changing by rearranging positions of the props to create different spaces: train station, elegant living room, or fabulous restaurant…

Conductor
The music is known as the biggest value of the opera, will be performed live at the auditorium of the opera house with HBSO symphony orhcestra under the baton of the French conductor Pattrick Souillot. He is considered as one of the best conductor in Europe, with many years working in two fieds: symphony and opera. Conductor Pattrick Souillot has staged many operas for many opera houses in Europe: La Traviata, Don Giovanni, Carmen, West Side Story, Aida… He was the one who successfully staged and introduced to HCMC audience the famous opera “Carmen” by Georges Bizet with the performance from HBSO artists in November 2015.

HBSO, with more than 20 years of performing arts, is currently the only performing arts organization in HCMC that gathers the most professional and talented artists from all three fields: Symphony, Opera, and Ballet. Opera La Vie Parisienne (Parisian Life) will be the fourth opera, among the most well-known operas in the world, that HBSO presents to the audience, giving them the opportunities to enjoy the high arts which contribute to enrich the artistic life and entertainment in the city.

Tickets

Ticket price: 800.000 – 650.000 – 550.000 – 400.000 – 150.000 VND (for students only)

Booking and delivery: 08 38237419, Ms. Hương 0989874517, Ms.Huong Ly: 0908057972
At HCMC Opera House, 7 Lam Son Square
Online Booking: www.ticketbox.vn