HANOI (Reuters) - The New York Philharmonic Orchestra will play the haunting orchestral theme from Oliver Stone's Vietnam War film "Platoon" in Hanoi this October, and the reasons are purely artistic.
American composer Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings" is part of the orchestra's program during its debut Vietnam performance, along with other classics by Beethoven and Mozart, music director-designate Alan Gilbert told reporters.
"We often try to play American music when we're on tour, and there are some limitations size-wise, as far as how big the stage is," he said during a preparatory visit to Hanoi this week, more than 34 years after the war ended.
Barber's solemn strings-only work requires a relatively small number of performers.
"Given all the various factors that we have to consider -- and there are many, believe me -- it seemed like a wonderful choice since it's such a beautiful piece, and for me one of the really great, great expressions of American music," Gilbert said.
The Hanoi Opera House is a tiny jewel of a venue, constructed by the French government of Indochina about 100 years ago, with about 600 seats.
The colonial Hanoi landmark was, in fact, one of the reasons the orchestra considered coming to Vietnam, according to Zarin Mehta, the Philharmonic's president and executive director.
"We said, look, Vietnam is a place where we know there's this wonderful opera house," he said. The Philharmonic made contact with Vietnamese diplomats in the United States, and an invitation came shortly afterward.
MUSICAL AMBASSADORS
But the venue will also prove an acoustic challenge because of its sizable wings and cavernous spaces.
On Thursday, Gilbert, Mehta and others from the Philharmonic ventured inside the opera house for the first time to see what they would be working with.
With some cajoling, the staff cranked down from the rafters part of an old-looking set of movable panels, designed to direct the sound toward the audience, for the orchestra team to inspect.
Logistical challenges are not new for the Philharmonic. Hanoi will be the 460th city the orchestra will have entertained in its 167 years of performing.
Last year, it performed in Pyongyang. The ground-breaking concert was broadcast live and the visit was widely feted as a positive sign for U.S.-North Korea relations.
For many in the performing arts, funding is a challenge this year, with the global economic crisis forcing some cutbacks. Continued...
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