Cai luong artist marks 30 years

Old school: Cai luong artist Kim Tu Long (left) poses with actress Thoai My. Long will celebrate his 30-year career by a live performance in HCM City this week. — VNS File Photo

HCM CITY — Cai luong (reformed theatre) artist Kim Tu Long will mark the 30th anniversary of his career with a live performance in HCM City this week.

Thien Duong Cua Toi (My Paradise) will feature extracts from cai luong plays that helped him achieve fame – including Day Song Bach Dang Giang (Waves in the Bach Dang River), and Nang Tien Mau Don (Peony Fairy).

Long, also the show's director, said it offered him a chance to achieve his dream of "paradise" – or, as he described it, an ideal theatre show where several performances were staged in the best possible conditions and actors work hard.

Long, real name Hoang Kim Long, will be joined by Thoai My, Phuong Hang, Trong Nghia, and Que Tran for the show.

Comedians Hoai Linh and Bao Quoc, and singers Cam Ly and Phi Nhung will be special guests.

Day Song Bach Dang Giang will not be a solo effort. Instead, Long will collaborate with young director Vu Minh, and the play will feature nearly 150 dancers.

Long, born in Sai Gon (now HCM City) in 1966, developed an interest in cai luong at 14. He learned to sing vong co (nostalgic tunes), a traditional southern art form, and perform cai luong from Vuong Quang and the late People's Artist Phung Ha.

In 1985, he was a member of Tran Huu Trang Troupe 3, one of the region's leading cai luong performers. His strong voice and dance skills quickly made an impression on audiences.

In 1992, he won the prestigious Tran Huu Trang Award given to promising cai luong artists.

He also won the Nguoi Lao Dong (The Labourer) newspaper's Mai Vang (Golden Ochna) Award for Favourite Cai Luong Actor in 2002, 2003, and 2009.

Thien Duong Cua Toi will be staged at the Hoa Binh Theatre in HCM City on Friday and Saturday. — VNS

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A new twist on an old art

HCM CITY — Tran Huu Trang Theatre's cai luong (reformed theatre) shows offered old stories in a modern style for HCM City theatre fans during Tet (Lunar New Year).

One of the shows featuring the play Da Chien Pha Song Ngan (Fighting on the Ngan River) describes parents' love and sacrifices for their children.

The work, written by Nam Chau, has been staged many times, attracting veteran performers such as Thanh Sang, Kim Tu Long and Phuong Lien.

In the version rewritten by Nguyen Thanh Chau, Tran Huu Trang invited young director Vu Minh to offer something new for fans.

Minh asked his young actors, including Trinh Trinh, Vo Minh Lam, Thanh Loan and Hoøng Quyen, to work hard to create a new style of cai luong singing and dancing.

He used beautiful clothes as well as light and sound effects to dazzle audiences.

"During the previous Tet, we often staged plays featuring social problems in a modern style to meet young fans' demands," said Phan Quoc Hung, director of the theatre.

"But this year we decided to provide a very old style of cai luong helping youth discover the music's nature," he said.

The VND500 million (US$22,000) play's financial success showed that Hung and others had made a wise decision.

During the Tet holiday, several thousand people visited District 5's Thu Do Theatre to discover the beauty of cai luong. The tickets have sold out for the next month.

In District 1, Kim Chau Stage introduced a series of extracts from famous plays like Hoa Moc Lan Tong Chinh (Mulan Enlists in the Army).

The play, directed by Tran Ngoc Giau, featured cai luong stars Vu Luan, Tu Suong and Thanh Thanh Tam.

Luan and his younger colleagues also performed Ong Tao (Kitchen God), a comedy featuring dances and songs based on traditional legends.

"We will travel to remote areas in the Cuu Long (Mekong) River Delta region to stage our shows next week because we want to entertain poor farmers and children who have fewer entertainment choices than their urban counterparts," said Luan, one of the city's most talented performers.

"Most of our shows in the city offer tickets at VND150,000- 500,000 each. They cost only VND10,000 for people who live in rural areas," he said.

Like other traditional art troupes, Hung's theatre receives about VND1 billion from the Government to run the company.

"We face many challenges in offering a stable income to our performers and staging quality plays," Hung said.

He said he hoped that local companies and organisations would offer more financial support to the city's traditional music troupes. — VNS

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Veteran cai luong artist dies at 74

Song in his heart: Performer Tan Tai. — VNS File Photo

HCM CITY—Veteran traditional performer Tan Tai, one of the southern region's most talented cai luong artists, passed away at his home from illness on Wednesday in HCM City.

Born in 1938 in An Giang Province's Nui Sap District, Tai, whose real name was Le Tan Tai, was a primary teacher after school, but he loved singing tai tu (a kind of Southern traditional music) when he was a child.

He began his theatre career as a cai luong (reformed opera) performer in 1962. Travelling across the region, Tai worked for leading cai luong troupes, including Buom Vang, Da Ly Huong, Hau Giang and Kim Chung.

After four years of performing professionally, he won the Thanh Tam Prize, the city award for the year's best cai luong artists.

From1962 to 1975 he worked with music producers in Sai Gon, now HCM City, to record more than 1,000 tai tu songs and perform as a leading character in 500 cai luong plays, playing an important role in preserving and developing the art.

In 1964, he opened his own troupe called Thu Do, attracting young performers.

He was honoured with the title "King of cai luong recording" by music producers and fans.

After 1975, he worked for the Hau Giang Cai Luong Troupe then in 1990, he started work as a guest artist for the city's Tran Huu Trang Theatre.

A prolific performer, Tai devoted his life to cai luong, which celebrates the culture and lifestyle of Vietnamese people in the south.

The performer's funeral will be held on Monday at the Nghe Si (Artists) Temple in Go Vap District. — VNS

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Cai luong legend dies from infections

Cai luong actor and singer Tan Tai

Reformed theater (cai luong) actor Tan Tai was gone at 6:00am Thursday at the age of 73 at his private house in Ho Chi Minh City after a long time suffering from bile duct infections.

Le Tan Tai – his full name – was born in 1938 at Vinh Trach Commune, Nui Sap District, Long Xuyen Town, An Giang Province.

Best known for his melodious and sweet voice for a man, Tan Tai had been a teacher before choosing reformed theater acting as his career.

He started by joining the Buom Vang (Yellow Butterfly) troupe in 1959. After 4 years, Tan Tai became its main actor and then won a gold medal in a prestigious cai luong competition named ‘Thanh Tam Awards’ thanks to his leading role as Diep Nhut Lang in a play called Cat Dung Phuong Tu performed in 1963.

He was also the main actor for other renowned theater companies in former Saigon like Thu Do, Da Ly Huong, and Kim Chung. Some of the classic plays starring Tan Tai include Khoi Song Tieu Suong, Bong Hong Sa Mac, Co Gai Do Long, Anh Hung Xa Dieu, Tieng Vong Ba Deo, Vo Tong Sat Tau, Suong Mu Tren Non Cao, to name but a few.

He was crowned ‘the Emperor of plastic discs’ after recording more than 400 discs of cai luong plays and thousands of nostalgic songs in the 1960s. His recordings sold like hot cakes and he even earned up to 1 gold tael (a record high at the moment) for each of the discs released then.

Recently, he took part in several cai luong performances and organized his first live show in January 2009 entitled ‘Dem tri an’ (A Night for Gratitude) at the Hung Dao theater in the southern metropolitan to mark his 50 years being part of the Vietnamese artistic form.

His children include Tan Beo and Tan Bo who are now among the most favorite comedians in Vietnam.

Tan Tai’s funeral will be held at his private house at 109 Nguyen Duy Street, Ward 9, District 8.

He will be buried at the Chua Nghe Si cemetery in Go Vap District , Ho Chi Minh City at 8:00 am on January 31.

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HCM City to host music, song show

HCM CITY — A traditional music and song show will usher in the New Year at HCM City's Dam Sen Park tonight.

The show Mua Xuan va Nguoi Linh (The Spring and Soldiers) features dozens of excerpts from popular cai luong (reformed opera) plays in praise of the country, its history and culture.

The songs highlighting the work of soldiers are composed by veteran artists, including Phan Huynh Dieu, Doan Nho and Hoang Hiep.

The show expects an audience of 2,000.

Residents in remote areas will also have access to the show, which will be broadcast live on the HCM City Television's HTV9 channel.

"By listening to traditional music, young generations can improve their love and knowledge about the country and its history and culture," said Vo Minh Lam, one of the city's young cai luong stars.

Lam will perform in excerpts from cai luong plays such as Rang Ro Viet Nam (Brilliant Viet Nam) and Nu Tuong Co Dao (A Female General), which feature Viet Nam's historical events and national heroes.

Lam is one of the evening show's five young performers who will perform with the older generation on stage, including veteran cai luong stars Bao Quoc, Bach Tuyet and Kim Tu Long.

The show begins at 8pm tonight at Dam Sen Park in District 11. Admission is free. — VNS

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Cai luong artists plan on revival

Fading colours: Artists fromthe Dong Nai Cai Luong (Reformed Opera) Troupe perform. Artists throughout the country are planning a long-term development strategy for the art form. — VNA/VNS Photo Nhat Anh

HCM CITY — Artists from around the country participated in formulating a long-term strategy for the development of cai luong (reformed opera) at a recent conference in HCM City.

Cai luong is a form of modern folk opera that blends southern Vietnamese folk songs, classical music, hat tuong (a classical form based on Chinese opera), and modern spoken drama. It originated in the southern region in the early 20th century and blossomed in the 1930s as the theatre of the middle class during the French colonial period. It maintained its popularity into the 1980s but is now in decline.

The recent conference, timed to coincide with the centenary of cai luong, aimed to devise approaches from the grassroots to the central levels to reinvigorate the faded artform in modern times, focusing on infrastructure for performance, e.g., new theatres equipped with modern lighting and sound systems, encouraging new script writers, professional training for young artists, and encouraging young cai luong critics who could link the art with contemporary life in their writings as well as introducing the art into schools.

The strategy would also inculcate a sense of duty in cultural workers and cai luong enthusiasts to help the artform reach young audiences, especially intellectuals and students.

Artist Tran Minh Ngoc complained that the art had been negatively affected by the popular entertainment market.

"The slow rhythms of the art are no longer suited to present tastes," Ngoc said. "Performing skills have also regressed in the face of the current media explosion."

The roles of cai luong musicians were also dulled on stage due to outdated equipment, she said.

Other participants in the conference noted that the artform was now failing attract young playwrights, directors, musicians or scenic designers.

"Creativity requires new elements, which can hardly be found in this artform," Ngoc said.

Cai luong, which broadly falls into two styles – cai luong tuong co (classic drama) and cai luong xa hoi (social) – generally praises Vietnamese moral values in a sort of play set to vong co (a nostalgic libretto) and background music most often featuring dan tranh (zither) or guitar. In a typical cai luong play, the performers use a combination of spoken dialogue and vong co. — VNS

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