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| Conductor and HBSO music director, Tran Vuong Thach - Photo: Courtesy of HBSO |
In the Saigon Opera House on Sunday evening, the HCMC Ballet Symphony Orchestra (HBSO) chose to offer Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony as the central item of its last concert of 2010. It was preceded by the same composer’s Slavonic March in B Flat Minor, and followed by a mixed-repertoire presentation by the dancers (replacing the advertised Four Seasons program).
It was clear from the opening notes that the orchestra under their director Tran Vuong Thach was in good form. The Slavonic March was as stirring and unsubtle as it was intended to be, and throughout the Russian spirit was strong, with Tchaikovsky’s affinity to his mighty successor Shostakovich occasionally apparent.
The symphony was also strongly played and full of beautiful episodes, especially in the second movement (taken at an appropriately unhurried pace). The Elgar-like third movement proved similarly effective, and the final movement was quite rightly given with exceptional vigour, particularly towards the end.
Ballet is essentially movement to music, and these days everyone’s doing it, from MTV to Vietnam’s own Yeah1 TV channel, with all conceivable styles on offer. But on Sunday evening the HBSO Ballet showed itself as involved in a strictly classical approach. They began with the vigorous mazurka from Le Corsaire (music by Adolphe Adam and others), continuing the Russian theme from the first half of the evening. This was followed by a pas de deux from the ballet Diana and Acteon, with Acteon dressed to resemble something between a stag (which in the myth he turns into) and Tarzan.
The highlight was the Duo from Chopiniana (also known as Les Sylphides). The two dancers here, Quynh Ly and Duc Nhuan, were outstanding in every way. They used the highly traditional Mikhail Fokine choreography, and indeed the whole evening was a tribute to these old Russian dance formulations, the very heart of the strictly classical repertoire. But this item in particular was genuinely magical, and more than made up for any lack of innovation in the program as a whole.
For the rest, we had the familiar corps de ballet numbers lit in white and dove-grey tones, with a pinkish light later turning to yellow. The very gestures we saw on Sunday can be seen on many an Internet site, so famous have these particular routines become. Let’s hope we experience some newer things soon, but these classical numbers, when well done, can never, in truth, be seen too often.
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