Hanoi (VNA) – The Royal Opera of Versailles performed at the “Four Seasons With Love” concert at Hanoi’s Ho Guom Opera on October 29 evening, offering a Baroque journey built around nature and love.
The concert ran in four parts - Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, mixing instrumental works with arias and duets by Giovanni Antonio Guido, Antonio Vivaldi, George Frideric Handel, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Johann Adolf Hasse and Riccardo Broschi.
Conductor Stefan Plewniak led the orchestra with three soloists: countertenor Théo Imart, soprano Marie Zaccarini and countertenor Stéphane Wolf.
A draw was the mix of Baroque staples like Vivaldi, Handel, Rameau, with less familiar names Guido, Hasse and Broschi, giving the audience a broader palette of European Baroque styles.
Guido’s four season works anchored the event. Arias and instrumental pieces by Vivaldi, Handel, Rameau, Hasse and Broschi were woven in.
Instrumental passages painted nature through the seasons. Arias and duets shifted the focus to human emotion of love, aspiration, sadness, tenderness and dramatic highs, making the four seasons the thread across the evening.
The voice-orchestra blend gave the concert its identity. Imart, Zaccarini and Wolf carried the vocal parts, adding distinct expressive layers across the four-part structure.
Plewniak, a conductor and violinist, previously led the “Four Seasons” concert at Ho Guom Opera in 2024. On this return, he again steered the orchestra through the seasonal arc with Baroque instrumental and vocal music.
Plewniak said Vietnamese audiences’ enthusiasm and connection are why the artists want to come back regularly. He praised Ho Guom Opera’s role in staging classical music, opera, ballet and symphonic shows, enriching the arts scene and international exchange.
Imart also returned after performing at Ho Guom Opera in “Four Seasons” 2024. The countertenor is a high male voice type with a special place in Baroque vocal repertoire.
Soprano Zaccarini and countertenor Wolf appeared in solos and duets with the orchestra and adding vocal colour to “Four Seasons With Love".
A Ho Guom Opera representative said cooperation with the Royal Opera of Versailles has run through multiple shows since the venue opened.
In April 2024, the “Four Seasons Concert” opened the international “Musical Seasons 2024-2025” series. Cooperation continued with “The Seasons Ballet” in 2024, the opera “Carmen” in 2025 and two “French Essence” concerts in April 2026.
The concert will run again on October 30 evening at Ho Guom Opera, No. 40 Hang Bai street./.
