The Firebird Suite, an orchestral work for the ballet The Firebird by Russian composer Igor Stravinsky, will be performed in Ho Chi Minh City on May 27.

French composer and conductor Fabien Tehericsen (Photo courtesy of HBSO)

Stravinsky created the ballet in 1908, based on the Russian legend of the Firebird, a good spirit that protects people on earth with its feathers.

The ballet features Prince Ivan who falls in love with a princess who is under the spell of the witch Koschei. With the help of Firebird, he saves the princess and they get married.

The ballet premiered in Paris in 1910 by the Ballet Russes, and has been performed by famous ballet companies around the world.

Apart from the original score for the ballet, Stravinsky arranged three shorter suites for concert performances which date from 1911, 1919 and 1945.

The HCM City Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera (HBSO) will perform the 1919 suite, which is the most well-known and played.

The orchestra will also play Berlioz’s Hungarian March from the opera The Damnation of Faust, and Debussy’s Prelude to L’Apres Midi d’un Faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun).

Bartok’s Romanian Folk Dances for string orchestra and Beethoven’s Egmont Overture will be featured as well.

French composer and conductor Fabien Tehericsen, a professor of music composition at University of Poitiers and the University of Orsay, Paris, will lead the concert at the HCM City Opera House.

Tehericsen studied composing and conducting in France, Italy and Finland. He has conducted several prestigious orchestras in Europe and Asia, such as the Philharmonic Orchestra of Radio France, the National Orchestra of Russia, and the National Orchestra of Russia.

He has composed two operas and numerous solo pieces which have been performed across Europe, the US and Brazil.

The concert will begin at 8pm. The Opera House is located at 7 Lam Son Square in District 1. Tickets are available at the venue and at www.ticketbox.vn.-VNA