Cải lương guru to offer training on YouTube

PASSING IT DOWN: People’s Artist Bạch Tuyết has 60 years of experience in cải lương (reformed opera), a 100-year-old genre of Vietnamese theatre. She has worked to preserve and expand her art among young people. Photo courtesy of the artist

HCM CITY — People’s Artist Bạch Tuyết is working on a new training project on YouTube to encourage young people to learn cải lương (reformed opera), a 100-year-old genre of Vietnamese theatre.

Tuyết’s project is called Học Viện Cải Lương (Learning Vietnamese opera) and will be released early next year.

It will offer online training courses for young people, including students of art schools and those who are working for drama troupes and theatres.

The participants will have to pass selection rounds held by Tuyết and her staff before commencing training.

They will study cải lương singing, music and dance before being trained at different performance levels.

The course participants will study with cải lương stars like Thanh Hằng and Châu Thanh, as well as People’s Artist and musician Thanh Tuấn.

“Cải lương is an unique form of Vietnamese theatre in the South. So I decided to offer online courses to help young people learn and improve their love for the art,” said Tuyết, who has 60 years of experience.

Tuyết said her project on YouTube would also help viewers around the world to learn more about the country’s culture and lifestyle through cải lương.

LIVING LEGEND: People’s Artist Bạch Tuyết is working on her new training project on YouTube encouraging young people to learn cải lương (reformed opera), a 100-year-old genre of Vietnamese theatre. Photo courtesy of the producer

Tuyết began singing cải lương when she was a young girl. She was a theatre star in the 1960s-70s and performed for several leading cải lương theatres in the region

She has performed in several hundred plays and TV shows and recorded albums featuring both traditional and modern styles of cải lương.

She has worked with HCM City Television (HTV) and several film studios to produce TV shows, videos and albums featuring quality cải lương plays on social issues.

She has also offered training courses providing young participants with performance skills in singing vọng cổ (nostalgia tunes) and cải lương, and has wrote and released many books and documents on the operatic art form.

Tuyết began offering her art on YouTube in 2018. In her videos, she combines cải lương with pop and rap music.

Her video, Mang Tiền Về Cho Mẹ (Bring Money to Your Mother), is a cải lương version of the same song by rapper Đen Vâu.

It was released on her official YouTube channel in January, 2022 and has attracted more than 358,000 views and 1,384 comments.

Last year, Tuyết launched a project called Tinh Hoa Cải Lương (Beauty of Vietnamese Theatre) on TikTok. The project offers clips featuring famous extracts from dramatic and historical plays performed by Tuyết and her younger colleagues.

Another project was launched in May. Tuyết and rapper Wowy of HCM City are working on a project of music videos combining rap and cải lương.

The two artists have worked to write, compose and produce a series of songs featuring the topics of love and life.

The first video is complete and is expected to be released on YouTube and TikTok in January. — VNS