HÀ NỘI — The Việt Nam National Opera and Ballet (VNOB) will perform ballet, folklore and contemporary dances featuring the tale of Mỵ Châu - Trọng Thủy at Hà Nội Opera House on August 23 & 24. 

Based on Mỵ Châu - Trọng Thủy, the story about the reign of King An Dương Vương in the 3rd century BC, the 90-minute work Mối Tình Thành Cổ (Love in Citadel) features the tragedy of the King’s daughter Mỵ Châu.

"The tale has been being staged by many theatres with different genres of art such as tuồng (classical opera), chèo (traditional opera) and cải lương (reformed theatre), it is amazing to stage Mỵ Châu - Trọng Thủy with dance," said Meritorious Artist Phan Lương. 

Lương plays Trọng Thủy, and will perform ballet and contemporary dances. 

Legend has it that Âu Lạc, as Việt Nam was known years ago, was a kingdom where peace reigned. King An Dương Vương built a new citadel and got a magic crossbow to protect his kingdom. Princess Mỵ Châu fell in love with Trọng Thủy, a son of Triệu Đà, the lord of a rival state that bordered Âu Lạc in the north, and the two wedded.

After the wedding, Trọng Thủy asked for the secret of the crossbow, but Mỵ Châu declined at first. Finally she revealed the secret and her kingdom was promptly attacked. The king killed Mỵ Châu for her betrayal. In the end, the king who lost his country and the prince who lost his wife both commited suicide. 

The dance was staged by French choreographer Bertrand D’At under a culture co-operation project between the VNOB and French Cultural Centre in 2010. 

"Choreographer D’At is a skilful artist. He made good use of Vietnamese folk culture to put it in the dance," said dancer Lương. "He choreographed my role Trọng Thủy quickly and he let me create dance movements based on his choreography".

With the modern view of the foreign choreographer the tale will be staged as a dream of a man waiting for his lover. When the tale ends the man wakes up and his lover comes, a happy ending unlike the traditional tale.

The dance show will feature artists of the VNOB and Việt Nam Dance College with videos to be shown on a transparent screen in front of the actors. — VNS