“I think Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas is a masterpiece! It has every emotion in a nutshell – tragedy, burlesque, scary elements, everything.”



The speaker was Lars Notto Birkeland, the Norwegian conductor who will lead the HBSO forces next Wednesday, May 9, in what is to be Saigon’s first ever fully-staged Western opera production.

“This is my first time in Vietnam and I’m impressed by the musical standard. These instrumentalists haven’t played Baroque-style music before, but they’re coming on very well. As for the production, it will have costumes and decor, with the soloists striking poses and gesturing (actually very much in the Baroque style) rather than acting. I hope the Vietnamese audience will like it.”

The scene was a hall on Cach Mang Thang Tam where the opera rehearsals were taking place. Outside motorbikes streamed by and the sun blazed down, but inside it was all the grace and charm of English opera in the late 17th century, a highly artificial art form. Opera was still a relatively new invention in Europe, but Dido and Aeneas – only an hour long – already has the ingredients of its future grandeur, only in miniature.

This tiny opera tells the story of Dido, Queen of Carthage, and her doomed love affair with the Trojan hero Aeneas. At the start Dido’s sister Belinda urges her to trust her feelings of love, but the moment the two lovers come together Aeneas decides he has to leave, to found the future Roman Empire. In doing so, he is encouraged by a group of witches who declare themselves enemies of all the rich and successful, Dido included.

When Korean-born soprano Cho Hae Ryong began to sing her celebrated lament which ends the opera, everyone was entranced. Earlier, the chorus had been heard singing the words and laughing the laughter of the witches, in many ways one of the comic elements of the opera.

Also present at Saturday morning’s rehearsal was Geir Johnson, Project Manager of Transposition, the scheme by which Norway provides assistance to Vietnam’s classical music scene.

 “We chose this opera because early European music of this kind is well-suited to Asian voices,” he said. “These tend to be light in texture, and this suits the requirements of Baroque music very well, and perhaps Mozart too.” Dido and Aeneas is effectively HBSO’s first-ever staged Western opera, he added; last year’s Cavalleria Rusticana was essentially a concert version.

Also important in Wednesday’s production will be the participation of the outstanding HBSO ballet. It’s known that there were dances in the original performances of Purcell’s opera, but the music for them has been lost. Indeed, it may have been improvised. It’s known, however, that guitars were involved, and Wednesday may provide some pleasant surprises for guitar enthusiasts.

Henry Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas is on May 9 at the City  Opera House, beginning at 8 p.m. Tickets are VND500,000 to 250,000, with VND60,000 tickets available for students. Contact 08 3823 7419 for booking and delivery.

SGT