HCMC - HBSO will open the new year with a concert of "pop" classics from Spain and Italy on Saturday, January 6, in the Saigon Opera House.

Items to be featured will include music by Ennio Morricone, Gipsy Kings, Manuel De Falla and Verdi. A large selection of soloists will be accompanied by the HBSO orchestra and the HBSO chorus. The event will be conducted by Le Phi Phi, with Tran Nhat Minh as choirmaster and Tang Thanh Nam, as usual, as concertmaster. The program begins with an orchestral dance by Tchaikovsky and continues with an item by Ennio Morricone sung by soloist Duyen Nguyen. Next comes Don't Cry For Me Argentina from Evita, led by Pham Khanh Ngoc, with the HBSO chorus completing the line-up. Volare from Gipsy Kings will have tenor Pham Trang in the lead, while Edith Piaf's and Louis Armstrong's La Vie en Rose will have Phan Hong Diu as soloist. Spanish composer Manuel De Falla contributes a Spanish Dance from La Vide Breve (Life Is Short) in which a poor Spanish girl falls in love with a rich potentate. Pham Trang returns with La Donna E Mobile (Women Are Fickle) from Verdi's blockbuster Rigoletto, a piece of boasting by the promiscuous Duke. Hanoi-born Le Phi Phi studied conducting in Russia and has worked extensively in Macedonia. He often returns to Vietnam, notably for cross-over concerts featuring pop and classical music. Tenor Pham Trang has been seen and heard in excerpts from many operas in Saigon including La Traviata, La Boheme, and L'elisir d'amore (The Love Potion). He has sung the full tenor roles in many others including Die Fledermaus (The Bat), Turandot and Carmen. Ticket prices range from VND600,000 to VND1,500,000. The event will begin at 8 p.m.