Meaningful play performed in Hanoi to celebrate 100 years of Vietnamese Cai Luong
The play portrays the image of Thay Ba Doi (Teacher Ba Doi), a famous musician in the Nguyen Dynasty, named Nguyen Quang Dai, as well as some others historical characters and events.
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Based on a few historical and cultural materials, the 150-minute play retraces the establishment and development of Cai Luong (reformed opera) in connections with historical ups and downs of our country a century ago.
"Thay Ba Doi" is built on the background of Vietnamese society in 1888, when King Ham Nghi was exiled to the Africa by French colonialists. Musician Nguyen Quang Dai was entrusted by the King to preserve Hue royal music. Musician Dai had to evade French colonialists’ hunt while seeking to further spread the national royal music.
He also contributed to developing "tai tu", a traditional music genre, combining Cai Luong and Southern folk music.
The "Thay Ba Doi" play, for the first time, has drawn the participation of over 60 famous artists from the North, the South and the Centre of Vietnam, with artists from the Vietnam Cai Luong Theatre and the Tran Huu Trang Cai Luong Theatre playing major roles.
The play combined both traditional and modern performance styles and the producers at the two theatres spent a lot on the production, including costumes, sound and light effects. It is considered as a bright spot in preserving and promoting the Cai Luong art in the flow of contemporary art and culture in Vietnam.
The commencement of the "Thay Ba Doi" play is to celebrate 100 years of Vietnamese Cai Luong. It is also a sideline event of the scientific seminar "A century of establishment and development of Vietnamese Cai Luong (1918-2018) - issues, orientations and solutions for developments."
The play "Thay Ba Doi" was performed for delegates of the fifth session of 14th National Assembly on May 28 at the Hanoi Opera House.
