“Swedish” Opera La Boheme In Hanoi

The famous opera La Boheme by Italian composer Giacomo Puccini will make debut to Vietnamese audience on January 13 and 14 at the Hanoi Opera House.
    This is under the co-operation project between the Vietnam Opera and Ballet Theatre (VNOB) and the Norrlands Operan, Sweden. It has the participation of young Swedish director Morten Forslund, British conductor Graham Sutcliffe and artists of the VNOB.
    According to director Morten this is one of the most famous Italian operas and it was staged for the first time in Turin, Italy in 1986.  The opera tells about the life of artists in Paris in the end of 19th century and things accompanied with them such as garret, TB, loneliness, poverty and also love and death.
    Key roles in the opera will be performed by Thang Long acting as Mimi, Thanh Binh as Rodolfo, Manh Duc as Marcello, Vanh Khuyen as Mussetta, Khanh Cuong as Chaunard, Minh Dung as Alcindoro and Manh Dung as Colline.
    Deputy director of the VNOB Pham Hong Hai said that despite the difficulties in language differences, the seriousness in training by Vietnamese artists since the early year will bring the success of the opera.”
    Particularly the opera has the participation of 15 foreigners who are member of the Hanoi International Chorus taking part in the chorus of the opera.
    This activity belongs to the project “Support Vietnamese culture for sustainable development 2005-2009” sponsored by SIDA.
    Under this, each year, VNOB will stage an opera with the assistance of the Norrlands Operan Theatre. ‘Cosi Fan Tutte’ is the first opera staged by the two theatres which was made public in Vietnam and Sweden in 2006.
    The second co-operated opera named ‘Flying Dutchman’ was introduced in Sweden in 2007 with the performance of 12 artists of the VNOB. After ‘La Boheme’ in Hanoi, the two theatres will continue to stage Blog Opera ‘Dream and Reality’.

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