HCM CITY – The HCM City Ballet and Symphony Orchestra (HBSO) will present a gala concert on Saturday featuring an operetta by Johann Strauss II and a symphony by Antonín Dvorak to celebrate its 23rd anniversary of its first performance .

The concert will open with Austrian composer Johann Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus (The Bat), a co-production of HBSO and Goethe Institute.

German director David Hermann conducted the operetta in Việt Nam last month during HBSO’s Autumn Melody festival, and received a warm welcome from critics and city audiences.

The Bat, 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.  

Its libretto was written by German dramatist Karl Haffner and author and composer Richard Genée. It premiered in 1874 at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna.

The performance will feature South Korean singer Cho Hae Ryong, Phạm Khánh Ngọc, Đào Mác and Phan Hữu Trung Kiệt, together with HBSO’s vocalists, musicians and dancers.

The concert will also include Czech composer Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No 8, with performance by the HBSO Symphony Orchestra.

Written in 1989, the symphony premiered in Prague and has been popular since then. Conductor Trần Nhật Minh will lead the symphony.

Minh graduated in 2007 with an MA degree from the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, majoring in chorus conducting.

He has won top prizes at international and national competition, including the International Competition for Young Conductors in Vladivostok in 2003, the annual All-Russia Competition for Professional Conductors in 2006, the 2009 Việt Nam National Competition for Voice-Dance and Music, and the 2014 International Choral Festival organised by Interkultur in Hội An.  

He has also performed with the chamber chorus of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Russia, France and Italy.

The performance will begin at 8pm on September 9 at 7 Lam Sơn Square in District 1. Tickets are available at the venue’s box office. — VNS