'Nghe Tinh folk song theater has had a proud journey'

Evaluating and recognizing the milestones of 50 years of Nghe Tinh folk opera is a correct policy of the Nghe An Party Committee and meets the spiritual needs of the people of the province. This is a form, a scientific and strategic way to preserve and promote the folk culture of Nghe An in general and Vi and Giam in particular; contributing to building an advanced Vietnamese culture, imbued with national cultural identity.

PV:Dear People's Artist Hong Luu, can you tell us about the history of formation and development of Nghe Tinh folk opera?

People's Artist Hong Luu:In the early 1970s, due to the need for new developments in folk music performance, Vi and Giam folk songs tended to be staged to become singing elements in opera. Combined with the demands of the masses and the influence of other theatrical forms, Nghe Tinh opera art was formed.

Nghe Tinh folk songs were brought to the stage as a means of expressing the psychological characteristics of characters in dramatic conflicts with the policy of theatricalizing folk songs, creating a modern folk song drama that joined the national stage with a long history. We can affirm that theatricalizing Nghe Tinh folk songs is a manifestation of correct thinking, in line with the requirements of preserving, conserving and developing the precious traditional cultural capital of the homeland and the nation. If we count from the establishment of the troupe (now the Provincial Traditional Arts Center) to now, exactly 50 years, it can be divided into 3 experimental stages of bringing Nghe Tinh folk songs to the stage, experimenting with folk song drama and Nghe Tinh drama: Stage 1 from 1972 - 1985; Stage 2 from 1986 to 1991; Stage 3 from 1992 to present.

Accordingly, phase 1 mainly focused on collecting, researching and experimenting with a number of plays. Among them was the play “Co gai song Lam” by author Nguyen Trung Phong, adapted from cheo; and the peak of this phase was the play “Mai Thuc Loan” by author Phan Luong Hao, which was awarded the Gold Medal at the Professional Theatre Festival of Region 4 in Vinh City in 1985. Phase 1 organized two important scientific conferences in 1976 - 1984.

In phase 2, in addition to continuing to experiment with folk historical themes such as "Storm at Ky Hoa Gate" by author Pham Ngoc Con, "The King Turns into a Tiger" by author Luu Quang Vu... Artists also boldly experimented with modern themes such as "Two Thousand Days of Injustice" and "The Right to Live a Happy Life" by author Luu Quang Vu.

In phase 3 (from 1992 to present), many plays with modern themes have been boldly experimented with, partly with folk themes. Among them, there are a number of successful experimental works such as the play "The young king's love story" by author Phung Dung, which won the Silver Medal at the National Professional Theatre Festival in 1995. Experimenting in the folk style, there is the play "Famous people grow up from the folk songs" by author Vu Hai, which won the Excellence Award at the National Professional Folk Theatre Festival in 1999, experimenting with a new style, from the script, staging to music... The play "Round footprints in the storm" by author Vu Hai in 1996, with a modern theme, experimented with a new style.

In phase 3, from 2003 to present, the Provincial Traditional Arts Center continues to experiment with highly combative contemporary themes, and at the same time builds historical dramas in works about famous people such as President Ho Chi Minh, Phan Boi Chau, Phan Dang Luu, Le Hong Phong... Typical plays are "The Words of the People, the Words of the Country", "Forever Bright Faith", "Truong Bon Fire Flower", "Dawn", "Teacher and Student", "Race in the Dark", "Stork in the Storm"...

PV:Nghe An folk operas can be historical “films” or a vivid epic chapter, plays that breathe life with hot topics and high realism. Can you elaborate on this statement?

People's Artist Hong Luu:Over the past 50 years, Nghe Tinh theatre has experimented with thousands of plays of different lengths, on all themes of folk legends, history, and modernity, performed for audiences in many localities inside and outside the province and truly loved by the masses. Many excellent plays, highly appreciated, won Gold and Silver Medals in national theatre festivals such as "Not me" (1970), "Mai Thuc Loan" (1985), "The love story of the young king" (1995), "Homeland in the heart of the people", "His words, the words of the country" (2005), "Famous people grow up from the folk songs", "Canh stork in the storm" (2023); ... The above plays have left a mark in the hearts of the public and proved that the folk songs have found a fairly solid place in the artistic life.

Most of the plays depicting historical footage, or portraying portraits of leaders and famous people of Nghe An are also carefully and attentively paid attention to by the Provincial Traditional Arts Center. Most of these plays praise the great contributions of the predecessors, while also portraying beautiful portraits with a strong vitality that lasts in modern life. Typical examples include the plays "Mai Thuc Loan", "Famous people grow up from folk songs", "People's words, the words of the country", "Forever bright faith"...

There are also themes of historical, folk legends, revolution, modern, with genres of drama, tragedy, comedy... leaving indelible marks in the hearts of the audience. If one of the most important tasks of art is to discover and help the public recognize the true values ​​in a myriad of phenomena; intertwined between good, bad, right, wrong; real, fake... then plays with modern themes have followed that direction. In the works over the past 50 years, more than 50% are modern themes. Because, right from the beginning, the stage has always been a forum for hot social issues. It is the red thread that runs through the orientation and guidance of public opinion, and at the same time is the factor that attracts viewers to the stage, especially at times when life is in a transitional period full of contradictions like today.

Modern plays are really close to life, touching on many different aspects of life that society is interested in. Especially from the late 80s of the last century until now, a series of plays on modern themes have been born to serve the country's innovation such as "Two thousand days of injustice" (1988), "The right to happiness" (1990), "Tears of the youngest child" (1991), "Mother's pain" (1992), "Famous people grow up from folk songs" (1999), "Overcoming fate" (2000), "People's words, the words of the country" (2005), "Stork in the storm" (2023)... have really made a big splash. Many plays have lasted for decades and are still warmly welcomed by the masses, such as "Tears of the Youngest Child", "The Price of Life", "Teacher and Student", "Race in the Dark"...

PV:Performing activities in recent years are actually a form of finding audiences, not audiences finding stages, so many forms of activities have to be created. What do you think about this issue, and what do you think about theatrical activities in recent years?

People's Artist Hong Luu:In recent years, the Provincial Traditional Arts Center has focused on experimenting with modern themes, expressing the lives of contemporary people in many fields. With its lyrical quality and creative application of new songs in plays, the Vi and Giam plays have the ability to adapt and respond to all issues of contemporary life, especially expressing the feelings and inner life of modern people, stirring up public opinion, awakening conscience, purifying souls, and making recommendations to public opinion on a number of social issues. Typical plays are "The Price of Life to Pay", "Where Does Hatred Come From", "The Case of Am But Moc", "Teacher and Student", "Duong Rach Trong Trong Dark"... have sounded the alarm about the risk of personality corruption, when money, fame, and status are eroding people's spiritual values.

That warning awareness has been shown quite clearly in modern themes in recent times. That is why modern themes make the Vi and Giam plays attractive. Any art has its own attractiveness, if it lacks attractiveness, it will be difficult to get closer to the audience, to life. The attractiveness of modern themes is the combination of tradition and modernity, besides tradition is the creation of new songs and melodies that create the success of the play, making the work have a long-lasting vitality. Previously, in the subsidy period, creative thinking of art and works considered education as the top political task, but now, to develop and survive in the market mechanism, the entertainment value of art must be respected. Of course, because of the concern for entertainment, do not disregard the humanistic meaning of the work.

With many different scales of activities, expanding the performance area makes the stage art associated with social life, closer to the public, creating sympathy between the public and the stage. Therefore, when building plays, it is impossible to take into account the art audience. There are many art audiences, but in Nghe An, the art audience is mainly the general public.

Therefore, determining the nature of each work to suit each type of audience is very necessary to meet the needs of the general public. Building plays that have both high artistic value and popular, popular character is a matter of concern.

In recent years, we have actively created many good plays that have the power to touch all classes of people, especially those aimed at the general public. At the same time, we always pay attention to the way of approaching the audience from direct to indirect. Many plays have been performed on many large stages dozens of times and are still requested by the audience to be performed again.

Besides, we also innovate the themes and performance methods to meet the tastes of the public. And the good news is that the Nghe folk music theater is attracting more and more audiences.

PV:Thank you for this conversation!