Expect changes after the 2022 National Tuong and Folk Opera Festival

Mr. Vo Ho Hoang Vu - Director of Ho Chi Minh City Opera House:

Rejuvenating traditional art to attract young audiences

Come to the festivalTuong and Folk OperaNational 2022, Ho Chi Minh City Opera Theater brings the play "Swan's Coat" by playwright Le Duy Hanh and young director Dong Ho with the content about the love between My Chau and Trong Thuy. Unlike other historical plays, we do not include many political elements but focus on exploiting the love story of the couple.

Through this play, we want to send to all our friends, colleagues as well as the people of Nghe An a Tuong work, based on the characteristics of Tuong but with a modern breath, easily accessible to young audiences. We hope that the innovations in costumes, musical rhythm, perspective... of the play will be closer to young audiences, making them love this traditional art form more. The play was staged to participate in the Tuong and Folk Opera Festival in 2022 but was also performed in time to serve the audience in Ho Chi Minh City and received very good feedback.

A scene from the play "The Swan Dress". Photo: DVCC

Regarding the organization, we feel very lucky to be able to return to Nghe An to attend the festival on the occasion of the 132nd anniversary of Uncle Ho's birth. Not only did we enjoy the special local commemorative programs and visit President Ho Chi Minh's hometown, we also took the opportunity to visit famous tourist attractions in Nghe An and had very good experiences at Cua Lo beach.

Another reason I am impressed with this festival is that the people here are very supportive and eager for the festival. This is a great motivation for the troupes and artists. We hope the festival will becontribute many good plays, quality for the audience.

_________________________

Mr. Pham Ngoc Tuan - Director of Vietnam Tuong Theater:

Groups face many difficulties due to the epidemic

This year's festival is truly a special event and has been carefully prepared by the units for a long time. However, during the preparation period, the Vietnam Tuong Theater as well as Tuong and Folk Opera units across the country encountered many difficulties due to the interruption and impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. This led to the quality of some works not being as expected. This art form requires collective work, so just one case of Covid-19 will have a great impact, and taking turns off like this will prolong the practice time. In addition, artists of art forms with heavy labor intensity such as Tuong will have many difficulties in recovering their health after contracting Covid-19.

In our unit alone, the complicated epidemic situation in the first months of 2022 has disrupted plans and made us much more passive.

In my role, I truly hope that after the festival, the role and value of Tuong and Folk Opera will be properly recognized. In the recent National Cultural Conference, our Party and State highly appreciated the fundamental role of Tuong and Folk Opera.cultural valueHowever, from policy to practice is a long way. To achieve the above goal, we need to have specific changes to restore and preserve traditional cultural values, and have appropriate policies to attract and retain talent in this field.

_________________________

Ms. Hoang Yen - Director of Khanh Hoa Provincial Art Theater

Correct perception to have a policy to attract talent

At this festival, we will perform the play “Phuong Hoang Trung Do” - depicting the character La Son Phu Tu in his journey to help King Quang Trung build Phuong Hoang Trung Do citadel. We hope that by recreating this story in Nghe An, the play will bring many emotions to both artists and audiences.

The general situation of the units participating in this year's festival is that they are facing difficulties in terms of personnel, everywhere there is a shortage of actors so they have to transfer actors from one subject to another. In addition, the force of actors is aging, difficult to recruit, and there is a serious lack of young faces. The underlying cause of this situation is that the regimes and policies for artists are too low, not enough to cover their living expenses. If in the past, the salary was low but the artists still had joy because the audience was enthusiastic, now, the low salary and the indifferent audience make many people quit their jobs, not choosing the profession. I hope that after this festival, the authorities, departments and sectors will clearly recognize the development status of traditional arts to havereasonable decision, solve the situation, attract talent.

Before the changes at the State level, my province and some other localities proactively spent budget to support artists, this is a very necessary and meaningful thing. Recently, when I learned that Nghe An province has also implemented this policy, I was very happy.

Coming to Nghe An this time, I highly appreciate the communication work of the organizing committee. If possible, I hope that the scale of the Theater will be invested more and the guidance for the groups during the travel process will be more thoughtful.