HCM CITY — The HCM City Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera (HBSO) will perform excerpts from its biggest art project in 2018, the musical Dế Mèn Phiêu Lưu Ký (Adventure of a Cricket) at the city’s Opera House tonight.

The musical is based on one of the best-known Vietnamese children’s book of the same name by the late writer Tô Hoài, published in 1941.

The book is about the adventures of a cricket that leaves his nest to travel and discover the world. He learns new things and has many experiences with the help of insects and animals.

Veteran composer Vũ Việt Anh, who was musically trained in New Zealand, prepared the musical for years, before he began composing it last year.

Anh is popular among local music fans for pop songs like Dòng Sông Lơ Đãng (Wandering River) and Đêm Nằm Mơ Phố (Dreaming of Town).

He is known for his instrumental works, including Spring Prayer Suite for orchestra and choir, Vô Đề Cầm (Untitled Instrument), Trường Sơn Suite, and Chân Trời (Horizon), which were highly regarded by critics and audiences.

Director Phạm Hoàng Nam and Vietnamese-Canadian choreographer John Huy Trần have been invited to join the project.

The musical is expected to premiere later this year.

The excerpts will be performed by tenor Đào Mác and HBSO’s choir and symphony orchestra.

Tonight’s programme will also include two orchestral works Synaesthesia by New Zealand composer Michael Williams and Growing Orbits by American Norman Ludwin.

Conductor Trần Nhật Minh, a graduate of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, will lead the performance.

The second part of the night will highlight HBSO’s latest contemporary dance Café Saigon, which premiered on June 30 and received a warm welcome from audiences.

The 75-minute dance is a co-production of HBSO and the Gotra dance company from Maastricht, the Netherlands. It is choreographed by Gotra’s Artistic Director Joost Vrouenraets and his colleague Maite Guerin.

The dance is set in a coffee house in Sài Gòn in the mid-20th century, where the love stories of four couples begin.

The work will open with a solo performance of a male dancer; and then a movement of four female and four male dancers with chairs and tables on the stage, accompanied by music from the 1950s and 1960s.

The concert and dance performance will begin at 8pm at 7 Lam Sơn Square in District 1. Tickets are available at the venue and at www.ticketbox.vn. — VNS