Saigon Opera House in Ho Chi Minh City
While opera houses in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) produce mainly traditional danced shows, there are a few attempts to show other music closer to Vietnamese people.
So, in July, a full original version of Bizet’s Carmen was performed for the first time in Vietnam at the Saigon Opera House in Ho Chi Minh. Vietnamese mezzo-soprano Thanh Huyen sung Carmen and French tenor Patrick Garayt was Don José. On stage were also soloists from Thailand and the Republic of Korea.
The show was part of a cultural exchange project launched by the French Institute in HCM City, in cooperation with the International Choir and Orchestra of HCM City and Lys Event Company.
During the same month, Tuôi Tre Theatre in Ho Chi Minh City and the Japanese Opera Shiki began their cooperation to present the first Japanese traditional opera, Mojorin, in Vietnam. In August the director of the Shiki ensemble started selecting around 430 artists from Vietnam who will participate in the production which will be premiered in 2018.
