Contemporary dance show Café Saigon has been cancelled – PHOTO: COURTESY OF HBSO

On August 4 the HBSO music director, Meritorious Artist Tran Vuong Thach, said he couldn’t say what the future would hold, and there were many posters for the contemporary dance show Café Saigon adorning the Saigon Opera House. Café Saigon had been scheduled for a single performance on Saturday, August 8.

But now Café Saigon is cancelled, together with all HBSO performances in the immediate future.

These presumably include the Beethoven concert, previously scheduled for August 21, and part of a series of concerts to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth in 1770, and the two performances of the full-length ballet Giselle, originally scheduled for September 19 and 20.

HBSO had previously announced a full program for 2020, later replaced by a shorter program for June to December 2020. Performances began again on June 13 with Beethoven’s Symphony Number 5, conducted by Tran Vuong Thach. But now their plans have been disrupted by the Covid-19 situation in Vietnam for a second time.

The ban on meetings of more than 30 people is presumably responsible.

Patrons who have already bought tickets for the cancelled performances can try applying for refunds at the box office of the Saigon Opera House. SGT

Bradley Winterton