General director Le Hai Yen (middle, white shirt) and the program's production crew. (Photo: Newday Media)
Following the success of the first season of “The River Tells Stories”, season 2 with the theme “The Legendary Train” is a grand musical performed by General Director Le Hai Yen and a crew of leading names in Vietnam, combining many types of performing arts with modern stage techniques, recreating and honoring the heroic history of the Saigon River and the country through stories about train journeys.
“The Legendary Train” has climaxes and exciting performances with a grand scene involving thousands of actors, and many emotional highlights, delving into the characters’ inner psyches, exploiting historical stories and anecdotes about historical figures in important historical contexts.
General director Le Hai Yen and the crew including stage director Pham Hoang Nam, music director Duc Tri, and chief choreographer Tan Loc solved the "difficult problem" of bringing the musical to a large festival-style space.
Re-enactment of Ba Son shipyard image.
The stage techniques, both conventional and technological, are thoroughly used by the crew, so that the audience can feel it from every angle. The stage is thousands of square meters wide and takes place on the harbor, the scene moves continuously with props that are not only large in size, such as real ships, real containers, and machines simulating shipbuilding machines...
Scene of launching the first ship during the Nguyen Dynasty.
Besides, there are many performances that leave a strong impression on the audience not only because of the magnificent scenery, but also because of the combination of modern stage effects such as the launching scene of the first ship built during the Nguyen Dynasty, the visual effect of the water surface combined with mapping makes the audience constantly admire the image of the ship gliding out to sea...
Recreate the image of an ancient ship.
Musician Duc Tri, in his role as Music Director, did the seemingly impossible by bringing the musical from the big stage to the outdoors. Along with re-arranging familiar revolutionary songs, the musician also wrote some new songs in the style of musicals to stage the play with the participation of a large cast of artists and a choir of hundreds of people.
Children at the program.
With nearly 1,000 artists , actors, and extras from 5-year-old children to 86-year-old seniors, Chief Choreographer Tan Loc used many types of dance performances such as contemporary dance, jazz, hip hop, ballet... to vividly, realistically, and creatively express the content of the program.
In addition, the program also uses circus language, sign language of the deaf... to create attractive and emotional performances. This is the result of a series of long days of practice through the night by artists, actors and crew regardless of rain or shine. In addition, for the first time, a festival program has designed 3,000 new costumes for more than 1,000 actors, with strict requirements to adhere to historical elements, true to the historical context but still be contemporary, theatrical, beautiful, leaving a deep impression on the audience.
Drone show in the sky of the City.
The final part of the program is a special light party on the Saigon River, with thousands of Drones arranged into the image of the brilliant Vietnamese flag, arranged into ships, symbols of the City...
Thousands of square meters of stage with performances on board.
With “Storyteller with Heart” Le Hai Yen, the success of “Storyteller River Season 1”, the Festival honors the art of Xoe Thai, until “Storyteller River” Season 2 - “Legendary Train” has truly made her a pioneer Festival director in the edu-tainment trend (combiningeducation and entertainment) to honor historical and cultural values, national pride in the youth community through modern art forms.
The female director shared: “We encountered many difficulties during the production process and before the show took place, there was heavy rain and strong wind. With a large script with many chapters, acts, and scenes, we tried to do everything in extremely scientific calculations. And indeed, in the past few days, we have worked with 500% of our strength. It is wonderful that today we have been supported by favorable factors such as time, place, and people.”
Fire and explosion on Saigon River.
The female director also shared that everyone was focused, the actors performed very well and especially the crew successfully performed the explosion techniques that they had not had the opportunity to do during the rehearsal process. “The explosion scene on the river had too many risks and challenges, moreover, it was a moving scene. There were too many moving scenes on the river, it was very difficult, we had not practiced much but on the night of the performance, everything went almost perfectly” – the female director shared.
Ship image with technology effects.
Le Hai Yen felt overwhelmed with happiness because she had fulfilled a dream that she had cherished for a long time: “I dreamed of telling stories about great historical figures. I wanted to tell those stories full of emotion, inspiring the younger generation so that they also love history as I have loved it, which has seeped into their blood. I spent a whole year researching history, writing scripts, looking for techniques and ways to tell a story that is attractive enough because this is a difficult topic.”
Fireworks display in the program.
Director Le Hai Yen also expressed her gratitude to her colleagues who have accompanied her, dedicating their precious time and energy to help her realize this dream. She is grateful that they also love this dream as their own. For her, this is not only the story of Ho Chi Minh City, of the Saigon River, but also the story of the whole nation, with many great historical milestones.
The female director emphasized: "I thank the audience of Ho Chi Minh City, the audience is wonderful, I feel everyone's energy when each performance takes place."
The art program Storytelling River season 2 - "Legendary Train" opens the 2nd Ho Chi Minh City River Festival in 2024, directed by the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, organized by the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism - Ho Chi Minh City Department of Culture and Sports, and produced by Newday Media.
The program attracted 10,000 people and domestic and foreign tourists to attend in person and millions of viewers to watch online on television channels, social networks and media.
THUY CHAU/ NHAN DAN NEWSPAPER
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