Western classical music could breathe a new kind of life into a fading opera tradition from southern Vietnam next week.

The new Kim Van Kieu, a special cai luong (southern folk opera) adaptation of poet Nguyen Du’s Truyen Kieu (Tale of Kieu), will play for a crowd of 400 foreign investors, diplomats and finance industry insiders at 8 p.m. at Thong Nhat (Reunification) Palace in Ho Chi Minh City next Tuesday.

The performance is part of Dem Viet Nam huyen dieu (Magic Night Vietnam), a variety show including music and dance performances. The event is being organized by the National Committee for International Economic Cooperation (NCIEC) and Mang Viet Company to introduce foreign VIPs in Vietnam to local culture while at the same time giving them classical music they’re familiar with.

Famed stage director Hoa Ha said that while she had fused cai luong contemporary music in her Kim

Van Kieu production last year, the traditional Vietnamese form had yet to be reworked with any Western sounds.

“I thought it was an innovative idea,” she said, noting that she had to cut down her 180-minute production to 75 minutes for Magic Night Vietnam.

She said the new version ends on a much happier note than previous versions of Truyen Kieu.

Truyen Kieu is an epic poem written by Nguyen Du in the 18th century based on the shorter Chinese story Kim Van Kieu. Though Ha’s previous production was the full-length Truyen Kieu, she chose to use the story’s older name. Now, the new Kim Van Kieu is a shortened version of Du’s longer work.

“Dance, contemporary music and cai luong will intermingle to recreate the best parts of the play,” she said.

“The combination is ideal for tourism or cultural exchange programs, helping foreigners both appreciate their culture through classical music and have a taste of Vietnamese culture through cai luong and Vietnamese pop,” she said.

The program will be broadcast live on VTV1 and VTV4.

Truyen Kieu is considered one of the most significant works of Vietnamese literature. It recounts the story of Vuong Thuy Kieu, a beautiful and gifted girl who falls in love with a handsome young scholar named Kim Trong on a spring outing.

But she is pushed into the dregs of society when she is forced to marry a rich pimp to pay off her family’s debts. The pimp forces her to work in a brothel and she tries to escape by becoming a concubine to Thuc Sinh. Sinh is a good man who truly loves her but is weak and taken advantage of by his abusive and viscous wife. The wife also tortures Kieu.

Kieu later marries Tu Hai, a kind-hearted rebel leader, but when he is killed by the court’s army, Kieu ends up in another brothel. She tries to commit suicide but is saved by a nun at the last minute.

And when she finally meets her young scholar again, she refuses him because she feels unworthy, and suggests he marry her younger sister, Thuy Van.

But the new 75-minute version ends at a joyous moment while Tu Hai is still alive. Before the royal court has a chance to kill him, he convenes a trial for all those who mistreated Kieu and they are all punished. As well, he rewards all those who were kind to her.

Hoa Ha’s first Kim Van Kieu show last February sold tens of thousands of tickets and received high critical acclaim.

It was heralded for its innovation and creativity and attracted much public attention for breaking away from old standards and essentially reinventing cai luong. The show single-handedly revived interest in the antiquated art form.

It was the country’s most expensive performance ever, costing around VND1.6 billion (US$94,000). The show won the Special Prize at the 2007 Theater Awards held by the Vietnam Theater Artists Association.

Reported by Do Tuan