By HCM City (VNS/VNA) – Paysage Dans L’oubli (Landscape
of Oblivion), a French opera written by playwright Olivier Dhénin Huu, will
premiere at the HCM City Opera House on November 26.
The opera is produced by the Rochefort-based Winterreise Theatre Company and
its partners — the French Embassy in Vietnam, the French Institute in Vietnam,
and the Centre for Arts and Culture Studies and Application — to mark the 50th
anniversary of Vietnam-France diplomatic relations.
The production evokes a thousand years of history of Vietnam and its link with
France, both countries from which the playwright Huu originates.
The five-act work revolves around Antonin, a grandson of Rosaline, a Vietnamese
woman who left Saigon in 1958 with her children to join her husband in France.
Rosaline’s daughter, Louise, has little memory of her childhood in Sài Gòn [nơ
HCM City] since she grew up in a new country and forgot her native country.
Louise’s son, Antonin, tries to rediscover the family memory through his
grandmother’s stories, old photographs and books.
The opera will feature baritone Guy Elliott as Antonin, soprano Anne-Marine
Suire as Rosaline, mezzo-soprano Léa Bao Ngoc Badillo as Louise, and other
French and Vietnamese artists.
The work will also have the participation of Vietnamese cai luong (reformed
opera) artists Nguyen Thi Tu Quyen and Ly Trung Tin.
The opera’s music is composed by Benjamin Attahir, focusing on Vietnamese
traditional music performed by musicians such as Tran Trong Tri with dan
bau (monochord), Mai Thanh Son with dan nguyet (moon-shaped
two-chord guitar), and Nguyen Thi Hai Phuong with dan tranh (16-chord
zither).
Attahir began learning the violin at a very early age and then became
passionate about composition.
His works are played by various ensembles and orchestras such as the Orchestre
National de France, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Tokyo
Sinfonietta.
He is frequently invited to festivals such as the Gaudeamus Festival in the
Netherlands, the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland, and the Festival
d’Aix-en-Provence.
Playwright Huu is also a poet and director. Alongside studying literature at
the University of Paris, he pursued musical training at the Amiens National
Regional Conservatory, which led him to serve as artistic coordinator of the
Théâtre du Châtelet from 2006 to 2008.
He then created his own theatre company Winterreise, where he
directed plays such as Three
Dramas for Marionettes by Maeterlinck, and L’Enfant et les Sortilèges (The Child and the
Magic Spell) by Maurice Ravel.
In 2021, Huu was a laureate of Villa Saigon, an artistic residency programme
initiated by the French Institute.
The performance of the opera Paysage
Dans L’oubli, which is available with Vietnamese and French subtitles, will
begin at 4pm at 7 Lam Son Square in District 1.
The opera will be later staged at 7pm at the Ho Guom Theatre in Hanoi on
November 28.
Tickets for the show are available at ticketbox.vn./.
