Art talk «Chuyện Tuồng Xưa – Chuyện Tuồng Nay» (Tuồng Then and Now)

   Behind the gold and glitter, what future is left for Tuồng? On a weekday afternoon in Hanoi's Old Quarter, a contemporary composer, a painter and a researcher sit down to talk about the past and future of Vietnam's classical opera. The title translates as «Tuồng Then and Now».

   The main speaker is the artist SơnX (Nguyễn Xuân Sơn). He began studying music in 1986 under the traditional percussion masters Bùi Trọng Đang, Nguyễn Đắc Hán and Đỗ Tùng, graduated in music from the Faculty of National Opera (1990) and took a Bachelor of Fine Arts (2002) at the Hanoi Academy of Theatre and Cinema. SơnX has written scores for contemporary stage works and films by Ea Sola, Trần Lyly, Phạm Ngọc Lân, Đoàn Minh Phượng and Nguyễn Phạm Thành Đạt, and his music has been presented at the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris and Lincoln Center in New York.

   Also in the conversation:

• — Guest: painter Nguyễn Mạnh Đức (Đức Nhà Sàn), co-founder of Nhà Sàn Studio, who turned his own wooden Mường stilt house into a meeting place for generations of avant-garde Vietnamese artists; he also collects and restores antiques and has been art director for traditional architecture projects, films and cultural ceremonies
• — Moderator: Triệu Minh Hải, MA, lecturer in film at the School of Interdisciplinary Sciences and Arts (Vietnam National University, Hanoi) and a PhD candidate in heritage studies researching how Tuồng is re-presented as its cultural context shifts

   It is for lovers of traditional theatre, people working in contemporary art, and anyone who has wondered how an old art form can keep living today.

   The talk takes place on the 3rd floor of the centre. Entry is free.

   Spend Friday afternoon on Đào Duy Từ street listening to the story of Tuồng.