HCM CITY — Die Fledermaus (The Bat), an operetta by Johann Strauss II, will open the biennial Autumn Melodies arts festival in HCM City, to be held from August 19-27.

The festival was organised by the HCM City Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera (HBSO) in 2005 to highlight classical music, opera and dance.

More than 200 Vietnamese and international artists will take part in 12 performances at the city’s Opera House.

For the opening performance, HBSO and the Goethe Institute in HCM City have prepared for more than a year to stage Die Fledermaus for the first time in Việt Nam.

The operetta, set in Vienna in the 19th century, features Dr Falke’s plan to embarrass his friend Eisenstein who leaves him at a park after a costume party.  

The work’s libretto was written by German dramatist Karl Haffner and author and composer Richard Genée.

First staged in 1874 in Vienna, it is regarded as the most celebrated and most frequently performed operetta.

The Vietnamese version will be directed by German director David Hermann.

German vocal master and conductor Askan Geisler is training HBSO artists to sing in the original language of German.

The performance will feature Cho Hae Ryong of South Korea, Phạm Duyên Huyên, Đào Mác, and Phan Hữu Trung Kiệt, together with HBSO’s vocalists, musicians and dancers.

Conductor Geisler and HBSO conductor Trần Nhật Minh will lead the orchestra on August 19 and 20, respectively.

On August 22, young Russian talents from the Maestro Foundation and the Spivakov Foundation will continue the festival with a concert.

Young Vietnamese talents, pianist Nguyễn Lan Anh and violinist Trần Lê Quang Tuyến, will introduce works by Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Chopin, Prokofiev and Sarasate on August 24.

The festival will include a performance featuring compositions for guitar on August 25, featuring guitarists Nguyễn Thanh Huy of Việt Nam, Anton Isselhadt of Germany and Pongpat Ponpradit of Thailand, and the Saigon Guitar Quartet. 

Musicians from the International Chamber Players and Việt Nam National Academy of Music will present three concerts from August 23-25.

The first, titled A Night with French Chamber Music, will feature compositions for piano and violin by Faubré, Debussy and Chausson.

In the second concert The Eight Seasons with Vivaldi & Piazzolla on August 24, the artists will play with violinists Bùi Công Duy, Trần Hữu Quốc and Vũ Việt Chương and American violinist Gregory Lee.

The last concert, European Journey: Countries and People, will include works by Wagner, Dvorak, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Glinka and Hummel.

On August 26, HBSO will host a performance of contemporary Vietnamese music by Nguyễn Mạnh Duy Linh and Vũ Việt Anh, and a ballet Gone through Love choreographed by Nguyễn Phúc Hải and Nguyễn Phúc Hùng.

The festival will close with a special concert featuring violinist Hoàng Tuấn Cương, German cellist Ulrich Horn and HBSO Symphony Orchestra. They will perform works by Brahms, Smetana and Tchaikovsky.

The two concerts will be led by conductor Lê Phi Phi, who lives and works in Macedonia.

The festival includes two outdoor concerts on August 19 and 27, featuring the Brass Ensemble from HCM City Conservatory of Music.

The Opera House is located at 7 Lam Sơn Square in District 1. More information on the festival’s schedule can be found at www.hbso.org.vn. Tickets are available at www.ticketbox.vn. — VNS