Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite

May 26,2018 10:49 AM

Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite is an orchestral arrangement of music from the composer’s ballet ‘The Firebird’, first performed in Paris in 1910, and forms the main item in the concert on 27 May. Stravinsky made three orchestral suites from this music, of which this, dating from 1919, is the second. Leading the performance of artists from the HCMC Ballet and Symphony Orchestra on this occasion will be French conductor Fabien Tehericsen. The Firebird Suite will be played after the interval. Before the interval, the program will present Bartok’s Romanian Folk Dances for string orchestra, Beethoven’s Egmont Overture, Berlioz’s Hungarian March from The Damnation of Faust, and Debussy’s Prelude to L’Apres Midi d’un Faune (‘The afternoon of a fawn’). Tickets are from VND200,000 to VND650,000, and VND80,000 for students. For bookings, call (028) 3823 7295.

The Magic Flute

June 04,2018 09:39 AM

The HCMC Ballet & Symphony Orchestra (HBSO) will present ‘The Magic Flute’, which is among the five most-frequently performed operas worldwide and was Mozart’s last important opera. Mozart and his friend Schikaneder, a local theatre owner in Vienna, created the opera in German in order to appeal to ordinary citizens whose native language was German. Most of Mozart’s other operas were written in Italian - at that time the international language of music.

Vietnamese artists from the HBSO will perform together with guest artist Derek Anthony from Hong Kong, who will sing the role of Sarastro, who controls the fate of the two lovers, Tamino and Pamina. The sung passages will be in German and the spoken dialogue in Vietnamese. ‘The Magic Flute’ is directed by German director David Hermann and will be conducted by the HBSO’s Tran Nhat Minh.

Tickets are from VND150,000 to VND900,000.

Festival of Colours

June 04,2018 08:50 AM

The exhibition ‘Festival of Colours’ presents 45 artworks by 45 Vietnamese artists from the Mekong Art Club, including Van Y, Le Trieu Dien, Hong Linh, Hoang Quoc Tuan, Thanh Tung, Dao My Dung, and Than Thu Ha. Each shows their own colour and style in many themes, from realism, with portraits, landscapes and daily life, to abstract, with expressionism and impressionism, while all aiming to present the beauty of Vietnamese nature and people. The exhibition displays paintings made from water colours, oil on canvas, lacquer, acrylic, and mixed media. The Mekong Art Club is a famous art club established in 1996 and belonging to the HCMC Fine Arts Association. The club includes many generations of Vietnamese artists and holds frequent activities to promote Vietnamese art to the public.

Between Fragmentation and Wholeness

June 09,2018 10:16 AM

‘Between Fragmentation and Wholeness’ is the title of a solo exhibition by Truong Cong Tung. The exhibition refers to ‘The Wholeness and the Implicate Order’ (1980), a book authored by David Bohm, a distinguished physicist in the field of quantum theory. ‘Between Fragmentation and Wholeness’ invites viewers to enter Truong Cong Tung’s multidimensional reality through three main axes in the gallery space: vertically - with the ruptures in urban planning and propagated doctrine, horizontally - with mystical human-altered landscapes in agrarian territories, and diagonally - with a mirage of blazing images extracted from the virtual domain. The bodies of works appear in various mediums from collaged sculptures of natural and manmade objects to video installations and layered drawings in light boxes.

There will also be an artist talk at the gallery on Saturday 23 June at 5pm.