Hanoi hosts comedy party 

A special comedy show themed “Laughing city of five seasons” featuring leading comedians from the country will be held at the Friendship Cultural Palace in Hanoi on June 19.

The performance is expected to attract audiences for comedy plays reflecting social issues and ridiculing the bad habits of the living.

It is also a playing field for comedy actors and actresses nationwide and an exchange between comedians and audiences.

Big names such as Hoai Linh, Minh Vuong, Chi Trung, Xuan Bac, Tu Long, Quang Thang and Van Dung will be on stage.

Director Do Minh Tuan, artist Doan Bang, scriptwriter Dinh Tien Dung will also take part in the show.

The comedy performance will then travel to other cities and provinces in the country.

Messe Solennelle and Ballet by HBSO at Opera House

A special performance ‘Messe Solennelle and Ballet Mixed Repertoire’ by the HBSO Choir and Ballet, and Symphony Orchestra will be held at 8 p.m. on Sunday at the city’s Opera House. 

The program has two parts. Part one is Messe Solennelle de Sainte Cecile by French composer of the Romantic era Charles-Francois Gounod, who penned Ave Maria as well as operas Faust and Romeo and Juliet. It will be conducted by Tran Nhat Minh.

Part two features pieces of music consisting of Pas de deux from Ballet Diana & Acteon, Arabian Dance from Ballet Nutcracker, Duo from Ballet Nutcracker, Pas de Quatre and Waltz of the Flowers. 

Tickets are available at the Opera House box office, 7 Lam Son Square, District 1 and priced at VND 250,000, VND150,000 and VND60,000.

A superb tango in Saigon

There’s no point in mincing words. HBSO Ballet’s Tango and Latin Dances at the Saigon Opera House last Thursday was the finest thing I had ever seen in the city. It was from beginning to end exceptionally professional, exceptionally stylish and exceptionally beautiful, and the longer I watched it the harder it became to find adequate words of praise to describe it.

Liveliness, colorfulness and freshness were only the beginning. This sequence of Latin-style dances was also magnificently choreographed and flawlessly executed by the young dancers. The recorded music was, of course, relentlessly energetic, but the choreographers responded to it not with wild abandon but with a strictly controlled sense of pattern, and the conjunction of the two elements – musical energy and directorial control - was at times almost too wonderful to bear.

 It’s not possible to praise one dance over and above another. The conjunction of dramatic overhead lighting, startlingly impressive costumes, a voluptuous use of color and vigorously synchronized movement characterized them all.

My only complaint was that it didn’t go on long enough. I could have watched this show for hours. Isn’t the HBSO Ballet ready now to offer us an entire evening?

By contrast, the orchestral half of the program before the interval was tepid at best. Two stylish and energetic Mozart items were played, but with such tentativeness that their essential qualities were never apparent.

Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante, for example, was in its day the last word in flamboyance and incisive bravura style. You’d never have believed it from what we heard last Thursday. The HBSO instrumentalists seemed determined to play throughout so quietly that any dramatic effects were out of the question, and the two soloists – Nguyen Truc Thuyen and Tran Thi Hoang Yen – were forced to follow suit, playing so softly that it was at times hard to hear them.

What would this orchestra do if it had to play something really forceful such as Rigoletto or Il Trovatore? Yet it’s basically a good orchestra. What it needs, though, is to be put vigorously through its paces, and strongly directed in the art of contrasting light and shade. Then we might hear something really worthwhile. Fortunately the dancers after the interval more than made up for these shortcomings.

Merzhin to rock the capital

Merzhin will hit the Youth Theater in Hanoi at 8 p.m. on June 20, promising the Vietnamese audience a night to remember.

The French rockers have spent the last ten years touring the world, performing over 500 concerts and selling 200,000 albums, with the latest ‘Opus’ being praised by critics.

The band’s combination of Pierre Bourdonnec’s passionate melodies, guitar, bass and drum with the saxophone and clarinet thrown in is a winner with fans.

Tickets are available at the French Cultural Center, L’Espace and priced at VND100,000 and VND70,000, and VND50,000 for students for the gig at 11 Ngo Thi Nham Street.