August 2020. The Vietnam Symphony Orchestra cancels in extremis a concert scheduled at the Hanoi Opera House, which it replaces with a live broadcast on Youtube and Facebook, entitled "VNSO Season opening concert". Following this season opening concert, the orchestra adapts its rehearsal room to the standards of online performances.
The Youth Theater, Vietnam Drama Theater, Thang Long Puppet Theater, Vietnam Song, Dance and Music Theater and many other arts institutions also offer shows on Youtube and Facebook. The artists we met seem to have no problem with it.
“Online performances give us a much larger audience than live performances, and our brand awareness is heightened,” says one.
"It's another very worthwhile way to share your passion for music," said another.
“Interacting with the public is much easier on social networks which have become an excellent channel of communication,” adds a third.
The Voice of Vietnam choir is also following this trend, as Hoang Tung, one of its distinguished singers, indicates.
"Digital age requires, the transition to online representations is something absolutely logical, especially since social networks have become so many communication networks", he notes. “Interactions with the public encourage us to constantly renew and improve ourselves”.
In May, in the midst of a lull between two waves of Covid-19 Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Ta Quang Dong asked the Department of the Performing Arts to create an online theater national level. For Nguyen Tien Dung, director of the Vietnam Puppet Theater, this is an excellent project.
“I am counting a lot on this online theater which will be placed under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture or the Department of the Performing Arts,” he said. “It will present several artistic forms and the quality of the performances will be certified by the said department. It will be an honor for each artist to be able to perform there ".
According to Kim Xuan Hieu, deputy director of the Vietnam Symphony Orchestra, as long as they are professional, artists worthy of the name know how to adapt to any circumstances. The establishment and development of online performances in no way compromises performances on stage. On the contrary, these virtual theaters have the power to free art from closed walls to approach a more diverse audience, to arouse the interest of the latter and to encourage them to come, one day, to attend a representation on a real stage, he believes.
Moreover, one not excluding the other, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism plans to develop both forms of representation in parallel.
Thu Hoa
