Opera talents perform German and Vietnamese songs

Pianist Tam Ngoc.—VNS File Photo

HA NOI (VNS)– Vietnamese singers To Loan and Manh Dung and pianist Tam Ngoc will perform a mix of German arias and Vietnamese songs in a concert at the Goethe Institute on Friday.

Loan will sing German arias Laughing Song and Tortures of all Kinds composed by Johann Strauss and Mozart, as well as two Vietnamese songs I Miss You in the Forest and We Welcome Spring, her own composition.

Mozart’s Tortures of all Kinds appears to be fittingly titled – it’s the most “horrifyingly difficult aria for coloratura soprano”, according to Loan.

The singer said she has more confidence singing in German after taking a three-month course in Germany with a scholarship from the Goethe Institute.

“German, Italian and English are the foreign languages that every opera singer has to know. But German is very difficult to learn,” Loan said.

Born in 1986, the soprano has been studying at the Viet Nam National Academy of Music (VNAM) since 2006. She won first place in the chamber music category in Viet Nam Television’s Sao Mai singing competition in 2011.

In 2012 she appeared at German Opera Night at the opera houses in Ha Noi and in Hai Phong. At these concerts, Loan demonstrated her outstanding vocal power under the direction of the German conductor Jonas Albert.

On Friday night, she will sing a duet with baritone Manh Dung (George Gershwin’s Bess, You is My Woman Now) in addition to the first Vietnamese opera (Co Sao by Do Nhuan).

Dung graduated with honours from the VNAM. He won second prize at the national singing competition for chamber and theatre music in 2009.

He currently sings at the Viet Nam National Opera and Ballet and lectures at the VNAM.

Free tickets are available at the Goethe Institute, 56 – 58 Nguyen Thai Hoc St, Ha Noi. – VNS