HCM CITY — Mozart’s most famous opera The Magic Flute will be restaged at the HCM City Opera House on June 9 and 10.

The two-act opera is a production of the HCM City Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera (HBSO) in collaboration with the Goethe Institute in Việt Nam.

The Magic Flute tells the love story of Prince Tamino and Pamina, daughter of the Queen of the Night. After Pamina is held in captivity under the high priest Sarastro, the Queen of the Night persuades Tamino to rescue his daughter.

The opera premiered in 1791 in Vienna, and has been staged by hundreds of theatre companies in the world, such as The Metropolitan Opera, Opéra National de Paris, and Deutsche Oper Berlin.

With the support of Norway’s Transposition Programme, HBSO introduced the concert version of The Magic Flute in HCM City in 2013.

A year later, French-German director David Herman helped the troupe improve all aspects of the work, from music, dance and acting to costumes and stage design.

Famous Vietnamese designer Quỳnh Paris, who has presented collections at fashion weeks in Việt Nam, New York and Los Angeles, designed the costumes for the opera and gifted them to HBSO.

The play was choreographed by HBSO choreographers Nguyễn Phúc Hải and Nguyễn Phúc Hùng.

The opera was well-received by critics and audiences.

In 2016, thanks to the support of the Goethe Institute, vocal master Askan Siegfried Geisler and language coaches Cornelia Schwind and Đoàn Hải Vũ offered training to HBSO artists to perform the opera in its original language of German.

This year, two language coaches Laura Lehnert Nguyen and Thanh - Nha Claudia from Germany will train the actors.

The opera will be performed in German with Vietnamese dialogues, featuring Phạm Khánh Ngọc as Queen of the Night and Phạm Trang as Prince Tamino.

Sopranos Phạm Duyên Huyền and Võ Thụy Ngọc Tuyền will play Pamina in the first and second performance.

The multi-lingual singer Derek Anthony, founder of the Music & Drama Institute in Hong Kong, will play Sarastro.

Conductor Trần Nhật Minh, a graduate of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, will be the choir master.

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