Evening gowns and motorcycle helmets were the contrasting attire as the New York Philharmonic played its first concert in Vietnam after a historic visit to North Korea last year.
Inside the cozy French colonial-era Hanoi Opera House, a mixed crowd of Vietnamese and Westerners, some in evening dress, filled almost every seat beneath a large chandelier.
Except for the occasional click of a camera shutter, they watched in mesmerized silence as the black-clad orchestra performed Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 conducted by Alan Gilbert, with Emanuel Ax on the piano.
PHOTO: AFP
Outside, dozens of Vietnamese, many of them young, pulled up on their scooters to watch the performance free on two giant screens that flanked the concert hall.
A never-ending stream of constantly honking traffic flowed past them but could not drown out the towering banks of loudspeakers and the melodies that lingered in the night air.
Do Van Son, 50, a motorcycle taxi driver, parked his bike in front of the screen, not caring that he would give up much of the 100,000 dong (US$5.50) he usually earns in a night.
“What I have is music, and a loss of income today does not mean anything,” Son said, admitting there are not many classical music fans in his country.
“This is a special case, when a world-famous orchestra comes to Vietnam,” he said.
Mai Suong, a fourth-year violin student, also watched outside with several other students from the local music conservatory.
“The performance was great,” she said. “I dream to become one of them of course, but I don’t think I’m good enough.”
Gilbert, who became the orchestra’s music director last month, said before the concert that, for him, coming to Vietnam was the “realization of a dream come true.”
On Friday night the audience shouted its approval and applauded for about three minutes at the conclusion of the concerto, prompting Ax to return for an encore piano solo.
Officials from Vietnam and the US said the concerts on Friday and yesterday would help further cement ties that have grown diplomatically, economically and culturally since the two countries normalized relations in 1995 two decades after their war ended.
But US Ambassador Michael Michalak said it was not fair to compare the Philharmonic’s visit to Vietnam with its trip to Pyongyang in February last year, when the orchestra was the largest US delegation in years to visit the reclusive and poverty-stricken nation.
Fast-modernizing Vietnam, in contrast, has a booming market economy and is increasingly courting international exposure.
“It’s putting Hanoi on the world map,” Michael O’Brien, 66, a visiting American, said of the concerts before taking his seat inside.
Leo Dyar, 60, an Irishman working in Hanoi as a schoolteacher, said the music was something that everyone can enjoy.
“Anything like this, any cultural exchange, has to improve relations,” he said during the interval.
The concert, part of an Asian tour by the orchestra, came a day after Vietnam accused the US of interfering in its internal affairs over a statement that urged the country to honor its international human rights commitments and release people in detention for peacefully expressing their views.
More than a third of tickets for the two concerts went to sponsors and government officials, with the rest sold to the general public, an organizer said.
The cheapest tickets were around 2 million dong.
“Two million dong a ticket is my whole month’s salary,” said Nguyen Lam, 31, a freelance worker who lives in a shared room with no television.
“I don’t know what symphony is,” he said. “I’m waiting for these two big screens to be on because I don’t have much chance to watch TV.”
A few foreigners who also stood among the motorcycles to watch the performance proved tempting targets for street vendors selling English-language books and souvenirs of Vietnam.
“Buy from me please,” a young girl urged in English over Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7.
Did she like the music?
“Yes, I very like,” she said.
Nauru has started selling passports to fund climate action, but is so far struggling to attract new citizens to the low-lying, largely barren island in the Pacific Ocean. Nauru, one of the world’s smallest nations, has a novel plan to fund its fight against climate change by selling so-called “Golden Passports.” Selling for US$105,000 each, Nauru plans to drum up more than US$5 million in the first year of the “climate resilience citizenship” program. Almost six months after the scheme opened in February, Nauru has so far approved just six applications — covering two families and four individuals. Despite the slow start —
North Korean troops have started removing propaganda loudspeakers used to blare unsettling noises along the border, South Korea’s military said on Saturday, days after Seoul’s new administration dismantled ones on its side of the frontier. The two countries had already halted propaganda broadcasts along the demilitarized zone, Seoul’s military said in June after the election of South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, who is seeking to ease tensions with Pyongyang. The South Korean Ministry of National Defense on Monday last week said it had begun removing loudspeakers from its side of the border as “a practical measure aimed at helping ease
MOGAMI-CLASS FRIGATES: The deal is a ‘big step toward elevating national security cooperation with Australia, which is our special strategic partner,’ a Japanese official said Australia is to upgrade its navy with 11 Mogami-class frigates built by Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles said yesterday. Billed as Japan’s biggest defense export deal since World War II, Australia is to pay US$6 billion over the next 10 years to acquire the fleet of stealth frigates. Australia is in the midst of a major military restructure, bolstering its navy with long-range firepower in an effort to deter China. It is striving to expand its fleet of major warships from 11 to 26 over the next decade. “This is clearly the biggest defense-industry agreement that has ever
DEADLY TASTE TEST: Erin Patterson tried to kill her estranged husband three times, police said in one of the major claims not heard during her initial trial Australia’s recently convicted mushroom murderer also tried to poison her husband with bolognese pasta and chicken korma curry, according to testimony aired yesterday after a suppression order lapsed. Home cook Erin Patterson was found guilty last month of murdering her husband’s parents and elderly aunt in 2023, lacing their beef Wellington lunch with lethal death cap mushrooms. A series of potentially damning allegations about Patterson’s behavior in the lead-up to the meal were withheld from the jury to give the mother-of-two a fair trial. Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale yesterday rejected an application to keep these allegations secret. Patterson tried to kill her
RSS