HOLIDAY TUNES - Phan Hồng Dịu and Đào Mác will perform in a Christmas Concert at the HCM City Opera House on December 20 and 21. Photo courtesy of HBSOsy of HBSO

HCM CITY – The HCM City Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera (HBSO) will perform a Christmas Concert at the Opera House on December 20 and 21.

The concert will feature 14 memorable Christmas tunes from different styles, eras and nations performed by a lineup of local soloists along with the HBSO choir and symphony orchestra.

The performance will open with Celebrate the Season by Matt Conaway, an internationally-known composer for concert bands, who uses the melody of Joy to the World as a foundation for the composition.

Võ Nguyễn Thành Tâm, winner of numerous accolades in Việt Nam, and the choir will sing the opening song Gesù Bambino, an Italian Christmas carol composed by Pietro Yon in 1917.

Tenor Phạm Trang will perform Pietà Signore (Have Mercy, Lord), a church aria from the middle baroque with music by Alessandro Stradella, and then sing classic carol O Holy Night with soprano Duyên Nguyệt, a world-traveling soprano who has performed in Germany, France and South Korea.

The soprano will continue with Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, the soundtrack from the film of the same name released in 1983 in Japan. The composition was composed by Ryuichi Sakamoto.

Classic religious songs such as Amazing Grace, Mary Did You Know, and Hallelujah will be sung by Phan Hồng Dịu and baritone Đào Mác, who graduated from the Việt Nam National Academy of Music and then went to study further in Musiktheater im (Revier Music theatre in the Ruhr Area) in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.

The concert will also feature Many Joys Of Xmas, Here We Come A Caroling, and Variations of Jingle Bells sung by the HBSO choir.

Meanwhile, the orchestra will play a medley of soundtracks from the movies Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence and Christmas at the Movies, The Christmas Song, and Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer.

LOCAL TALENT - Conductor Trần Nhật Minh, head and chorusmaster of the HBSO Opera, will lead the concert. Photo courtesy of HBSO

Conductor Trần Nhật Minh, head and chorusmaster of the HBSO Opera, will lead the concert.

Minh graduated in chorus conducting from the Magnitogorsk State Conservatory in Russia and earned his Master’s of Art at Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Conservatory in 2007.

He won several top prizes at international competitions such as the International Competition for Young Conductors in Vladivostok in 2003, and the International Choral Festival organised by Interkultur, the world’s leading organiser of international choir competitions and festivals, in Hội An in 2014.

The shows will begin at 8 pm at 7 Lam Sơn Square in District 1. Tickets are available at the venue. — VNS