HCM CITY — Overseas Vietnamese singer Camille Huyen will performVietnamese love poems put to music with Swiss composer and guitarist Waltherr Giger at HCM City Music Conservatory next Wednesday. The programme, Truong Ca Trang (Chants Lunaires), will commemorate the late Vietnamese love poet Han Mac Tu, who died of leprosy at the age of 28. Giger spent two years to set Tu's poems to music. The show is free entry.
As well as the songs from Han Mac Tu's poems, the duo who both live in Switzerland, will perform lullabies from the US, Spain, Switzerland, Greece and Brazil.
The ten poems were carefully selected from Han Mac Tu's anthology to represent the poet's charm. Giger said that "Any choice would have involved loss".
The poems including Da Lat Trang Mo, Nhung Giot Le and Anh Dien were arranged into Asian and Vietnamese style songs for the guitar with accompaniment of local instruments: dan nguyet (Vietnamese two-chord guitar), dan co or dan nhi (two-string zither), dan bau (one-string zither) and dan tranh (16-string zither).
The event was organised by the Swiss town of Wallisellen to mark the 70th death anniversary of the talented poet in Zurich City, Switzerland, on May 22, during the Hue Festival that is being held there. The duo will tour the show to Hue on Sunday, Quang Ngai and Quy Nhon, the homeland of Han Mac Tu.
In 1986 Huyen Camille who was born in Hue started singing at dance-hall restaurants and concerts in Paris while a student and continued after completing her studies. In 1996, she moved to Switzerland and has participated in music recitals organized by Vietnamese communities there and in France, Germany and Italy.
Her first album Huyen Cam, which was released in 2004. — VNS