HCM City (VNS/VNA) - The HCM City Ballet Symphony Orchestra andOpera (HBSO) will stage the crime opera Yesterday’s Memory atthe HCM City Opera House on November 17.
The co-production between HBSO and the Goethe Institute premiered at the AutumnMelody Festival in August before local and foreign audiences.
The opera's German directors, David Hermann and Anna-Sophie Weber, work inopera production in Berlin.
Hermann said he wanted to try something new and that detective topics werealways welcomed by audiences.
The opera incorporates choral music and excerpts from compositions and operasby Bach, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner and Weill.
The play opens with a murder at an Opera House, followed by an investigation tofind the truth behind the crime.
The inspecting police officer will be featured by tenor Phan Huu Trung Kiet,while the victim named Mr X will be played by baritone Dao Mac.
The opera will also include soloists Pham Khanh Ngoc, Pham Duyen Huyen, Tran ThanhNam, and Nguyen Thi Thanh Nguyen.
All soloists received vocal training by German vocal coach Askan Geisler tosing German-language songs in the opera.
The performance will also feature HBSO’s choir and symphony orchestra.
Conductor Minh, who graduated with a Master's in Music in Conducting atMoscow's Tchaikovsky Conservatory, will lead the HBSO symphony orchestra on thenight.
Hermann worked with choreographer Nguyen Phuc Hai to create lightning effectsfor the opera, while German stage and costume designer Judith Philipp madescenery and props.
Famous Vietnamese designer Quynh Paris, who has presented collections atfashion weeks in Vietnam, New York and Los Angeles, designed the costumes forthe opera and gifted them to HBSO.
Hermann has produced three operas for HBSO, including Mozart’s TheMagic Flute and Johann Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus (TheBat), and Carl Maria von Weber’s Der Freischutz (TheMarksman).
He studied at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin, and won first prizeat the International Competition of Staging and Stage Design in Graz, Austriain 2000.
He was nominated as best director at the 2018 International Opera Awards inLondon for his Krenek Trioly at Opera Frankfurt, winning inthe category Rediscovered Work of the Year.
He has also directed numerous classical and modern operas such as TheMarriage of Figaro and The Magic Flute byMozart, Jeanne d’Arc au Bûcher (Joan of Arc at the Stake) byArthur Honegger, and L’Heure Espagnole (The Spanish Hour) byMaurice Ravel.
Yesterday’s Memory will begin at 8pm. The Opera House is at 7 LamSon Square in District 1./.
