Students of Quoc Hoc Hue High School for the Gifted are practicing Hue Singing
“A lot of people have asked me why I love Hue Singing? And why I chose Hue Singing club?,” Truong Si Tu Anh, a student of grade 12 - English 1, Quoc Hoc Hue High School for the Gifted shared.
According to Tu Anh, nowadays, young people only know about Hue Singing through the "Hue Singing on the Huong River" program, and they have little interest in the art form that once had a role as national music. However, Tu Anh said that "Hue Singing on the Huong River" had become commercialized, and no longer retained the "soul" of Hue Singing melodies, and it was difficult to attract young people who prefer popular kind of music such as pop, rock, and ballad, etc.
Being able to perform Hue Singing, Tu Anh always feels the deliberate and sweet characteristics in each Hue Singing melody, like the soul of Hue people. When Tu Anh and her friends realized young people's indifference to the unique culture of their homeland, they nurtured a project aiming to give people a different view of Hue Singing. Since then, the second season of "Thien Quang Hau Mac" has been built.
"Thien Quang Hau Mac" is an event with the combination of modern musical performance and Vietnamese traditional theatrical art forms, which is choreographed and performed by young people of Quoc Hoc Hue High School for the Gifted. In the first season, their play - with the combination of Hue Opera art - was received quite positively by the audience. In the second season, Hue Singing is an inspiration for Tu Anh and her "teammates" to make the script, practice, and prepare for the performance.
“The reason why we take Hue Singing as our inspiration is due to its familiarity and closeness to Hue people. Every day, after school and extra classes, my friends and I often stay at school at noon to rehearse the scenes of the play. However, as most of the members of the "Thien Quang Hau Mac" are in grade 12, it is difficult for all of us to gather in one rehearsal session," Tu Anh said.
Though it is difficult, more than 100 members of the project as a whole have tried and strived to complete their roles. Up to now, the play has entered its final rehearsal scenes. The "Thien Quang Hau Mac 2" is expected to be performed at the end of April.
In the process of preparing the script, Tu Anh and her friends have also been guided by their teacher, Mrs. Ho Thi Tam (alias Dong Ha, the writer). The students have found and read research papers on Hue Singing by themselves, so as to set up their own play, along with the counseling of Mrs. Dong Ha to complete the script.
“The students have a great passion for Hue Singing, and also work very hard to learn about it so as to avoid making mistakes in the script. Therefore, after each editing step, the play has stricter content and fewer mistakes,” Mrs. Dong Ha shared.
“As the descendants of the Ancient Capital land, I realized that although everyone still know about Hue Singing, and its melodies are still performed in this land, Hue Singing has no longer flourished as it previously had. Via the "Thien Quang Hau Mac", we hope that everyone, especially young people, will pay more interest in Hue Singing, so as to preserve the unique cultural heritage passed down from the ancestors," Tu Anh confided.
Story and photo: DANG TRINH