Violinist Tang Thanh Nam will perform at HBSO’s October 17 concert – PHOTO: COURTESY OF HBSO

The show will feature music by Freddie Mercury, Lady Gaga, Andrew Lloyd Webber and many others. The films featured will include Gladiator, A Star is Born, Chicago, Bohemian Rhapsody, Frozen II, Pearl Harbour and Love Never Dies.

This major event will be conducted by Tran Nhat Minh and will include a band, the HBSO Chorus and the HBSO Orchestra.

It will be a long and varied program, beginning with orchestral music from the 2016 movie The Magnificent Seven (a remake of the 1960 film of the same name, which in turn was a remake of the classic 1954 Japanese film Seven Samurai) and going on to present the Chairman’s Waltz from the 2005 film Memoirs of a Geisha, with celebrity soloists Tang Thanh Nam (violin) and Meritorious Artist Nguyen Tan Anh (cello).

These two items should certainly set the tone for what is to come, and therefore for the evening as a whole.

These will be followed by Ho Trung Dung singing ‘The Impossible Dream’ from Dale Wasserman’s 1972 film Man of La Mancha, with music by Mitch Leigh, and then Vo Ha Tram and Ho Trung Dung (again) singing ‘Shallow’ from the 2018 movie A Star is Born. 

Frozen II comes text, with an orchestral medley followed by Vo Ha Tram returning to sing ‘Into the Unknown’. 

Pham Khanh Ngoc then sings ‘There you’ll be’ from Pearl Harbour, succeeded by orchestral music from Gladiator. 

Andrew Lloyd Weber next makes an appearance with his song ‘Love Never Dies’ from the movie of the same name, with vocals from Pham Duyen Huyen and Meritorious Artist Tran Hong Vy. Pham Khanh Ngoc then returns with ‘The Diva Dance’ from the 1997 film The Fifth Element.

Choral highlights follow from the 2017 film about the 19th century American circus manager Phineas Taylor (P.T.) Barnum, The Greatest Showman. Then baritone Dao Mac makes an appearance with another item from A Star is Born, ‘Always Remember us this Way’.

Dao Mac stays on stage for Freddie Mercury’s ‘Don’t Stop me Now” from the 2018 film Bohemian Rhapsody, with full backing from the HBSO Chorus. The chorus now takes its turn to remain on stage for highlights from the 2016 movie directed by Damien Chezelle, La La Land.

Events will be brought to a stunning close with the ‘Chicago Symphony Suite’ from the film Chicago and the hymn ‘Thankful’ (by Carole Bayer Sager, David Foster and Richard Page, arranged by Mark Hayes).

Film music is always popular with concert audiences, and this time should prove no different. Happiness at the end of the closure due to Covid-19 will undoubtedly contribute to the atmosphere as well.

Ticket prices are from VND450,000 to VND600,000, VND750,000 and VND900,000, with a concessionary rate for bona-fide students of VND150,000 on production of a student card. SGT