DOLCE VITA - Soprano Silvia Cafiero of Italy will sing arias from Italian operas at the “A Night of Famous Italian Arias” concert at the HCM City Opera House on March 9. Photo courtesy of HBSO

HCM CITY — The HCM City Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera (HBSO) will open the 2024 season with a concert featuring famous Italian arias and compositions at the HCM City Opera House on March 9.

“A Night of Famous Italian Arias” is a co-production of HBSO and the Italian Consulate General in HCM City to mark the 100th death anniversary of Giacomo Puccini, one of history’s foremost opera composers.

The night will feature arias from Puccini’s most enduring and critically acclaimed works such as La Bohème (1896), Tosca (1900), Madama Butterfly (1904), and Turandot (1924).

Soprano Silvia Cafiero from Italy will perform aria Un bel di vedremo (One fine day we'll see) from the three-act opera Madama Butterfly.

Cafiero played a leading role in operas by Giuseppe Verdi, and has performed as a soloist in Italy, Poland and Japan.

Another aria from the opera, Addio fiorito asil (Goodbye Flower Shelter), will be sung by Vietnamese tenor Phan Trung Hữu Kiệt.

Vocalists Duyên Nguyệt and Phạm Trang will present arias from La Bohème, an opera in four acts set in Paris in the 1830s. It depicts the Bohemian lifestyle of a poor seamstress and her artist friends.

Meritorious Artist Phạm Khánh Ngọc and Đào Mác will introduce two arias from three-act opera Tosca featuring a story of love, lust, murder and political intrigue.

Phạm Trang will perform Nessun Dorma (Let no one sleep), an aria from the final act of the opera Turandot.

The concert will also highlight arias from Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi’s operas Rigoletto (1851), La Traviata (The Fallen Woman) (1853), Un ballo in maschera (A Masked Ball) (1859), and La forza del destino (The Force of Destiny) (1862).

The performances will feature Cafiero, Khánh Ngọc, Hữu Kiệt and Đào Mác.

HBSO’s Choir and Symphony Orchestra will perform as well.

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