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 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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