http://www.thanhniennews.com/entertaiments/?catid=6&newsid=19623 Vietnam to stage Mozart's last opera The Magic Flute, the last opera by Mozart, will be performed at the Hanoi Opera House on September 16-20 to mark the 250th birthday of the Austrian genius. The performance, co-sponsored by Austria and Vietnam, would be the first opera to be performed in its original language by Vietnamese opera singers, voice trainer and Vietnamese People's Artist Nguyen Trung Kien said. "The Magic Flute is an ideal vehicle to enhance the musical scene in Hanoi. It is easy for everyone to understand and the opera juxtaposes musical perfection with core moral values," Kien told a news briefing in Hanoi earlier this week. The opera will be performed by 120 artists from the Hanoi National Conservatory of Music and 16 dancers from the Vietnam Opera Theater. It will be conducted by Wolfgang Groehs and directed by Manfred Waba and Trung Kien. Groehs and Waba are Austrians. ... This "Mozart in Vietnam" news brings to mind fascinating stories of artistic collaboration by unlikely participants. There is Mirra Banks' "Last Dance," a memorable account of the troubled relationship between Pilobolus and Maurice Sendak in creating the dance company's "A Selection." Even move to the point: Tom Weidlinger's "A Dream in Hanoi," the feature-length, honest, no-holds-barred story of an American-Vietnamese co-production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in Hanoi in 2000 (well before today's virtual love-fest between the two countries). In the film, the Artists Repertory Theater of Portland, Oregon, and the Central Dramatic Company of Vietnam struggle together (and frequently against each other) to stage a bilingual production of the play. Improbably, cameras keep rolling through squabbles, hostilities, misunderstandings, exhaustion and moments of insight and discovery. With the mixed Vietnamese-American cast, virtually no knowledge of the other language, hemmed in by strange Communist-but-commercial rules and regulations, the actors struggle with basic differences between cultures. Emoting openly or, heavens!, kissing on stage is extremely difficult for the Vietnamese actors; the Americans - especially the technical staff - are driven to distraction by three-hour lunch breaks and no semblance of a schedule. The Portland dramaturg (and instigator of the project) is reduced to tears when the Vietnamese director insists on deep cuts in the text because "the information has already been conveyed." The American director desperately tries to keep things on an even keel. Oh, and no tickets can be sold until government censors attend a performance, meaning that the house for the premiere needs to be filled with "volunteers," even though the producers are expected to raise money. Communist rules in a capitalist environment - a puzzlement. And, as long as Bill Clinton is visiting Hanoi at the same time, why not have the President at the premiere? It is not to be and the project is kicked out of the Opera House where something else is being produced for the visit. The entire project is jeopardized and producers and directors from the two sides are ready to kill their counterparts. The film's end is suspenseful, moving and memorable. You're likely to remember the people portrayed in it much longer than some fictional characters. Janos Gereben www.sfcv.org http://einsiders.com/