Dancers from the HCM City Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera will perform in the ballet The Nutcracker at the Opera House on December 8, 9 and 10 (Photo courtesy of HBSO) HCM City(VNA) - The HCM City Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera (HBSO) will open theChristmas season this week with the ballet The Nutcracker at theOpera House, featuring a conductor from Norway and dancers from Japan.
Based on the story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King by German authorE.T.A. Hoffmann, the ballet features the dream of the little girl Clara and heradventures with a nutcracker, a gift from her godfather.
The ballet is choreographed by Johanne Jakhelln Constant, the art director ofthe Moving Art Theatre in Bodo, Norway, who worked with the HBSO to premierethe work in 2011.
A rousing success, the play has been presented every Christmas season in HCMCity.
This year, the two-act work will feature Japanese dancer Naoki Tomikawa (asCavaliar) and Yuki Hiroshige (as Dewdrop).
Tomikawa studied classical ballet and graduated from the National VaganovaBallet School in Russia in 1991. He has worked for the New National Theatre andNoriko Kobayashi Ballet Theater in Japan, and is now a member of the Volkstheater Rostock in Germany.
Hiroshige began practicing ballet at the age of 11, and began studying at theAustralian Ballet School in 1993. She worked as a solo dancer at the NewNational Theatre from 1996, and later performed at Noriko Kobayashi BalletTheater from 2005.
The ballet will also highlight Vietnamese ballet stars, including Ho Phi Diep (theNutcracker), Do Hoang Khang Ninh (Clara), and Dam Duc Nhuan (Mr Drosselmeyer).
Child dancers from the Sasa Ballet and HBSO dancers will perform as well.
Choreographer Nguyen Phuc Hung, the ballet’s general director, said: “Thistime, more moves will be added to the ballet. I made some changes in backgroundsettings, decorations as well as the lightning effect to enhance the magicaland shimmering feeling of the work.”
Hung, a graduate of the Netherlands’ Fontys Dance Academy, has choreographedseveral Vietnamese contemporary dances.
The ballet’s music score composed by Tchaikovsky will be performed by the HBSOFemale Choir and Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Magnus Loddgard.
Loddgard studied conducting with leading professionals in Norway and Germany.He joined the Norwegian Opera in 2005, and became chief conductor of theEnsemble Neon in 2009.
He has conducted several operas, ballets and theatre productions with theNorwegian Opera and Ballet and with regional theatres.
He worked with the HBSO in the ballet The Nutcracker in 2012, and theopera The Magic Flute in 2013 and 2014.
The Nutcracker will begin at 8pm on December 8, 9 and 10 at the OperaHouse, 7 Lam Son Square in District 1. Tickets are available at the venue.-VNA
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