The musical drama “The Aspiration of Dam San” (The Aspiration of Dam San) – Photo: Organizing Committee
These activities are organized by the Dak Lak Provincial Department of Culture and Sports in collaboration with the Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports to promote Central Highlands culture and arts in Hanoi.
Accordingly, the folk music and art program titled “The Call of the Highlands” will take place at 19:30 on April 12, 2025 (Saturday evening) at the stage of Ba Kieu Temple Flower Garden, the pedestrian zone surrounding Hoan Kiem Lake, Hanoi.
Featuring gong performances, ensemble performances of traditional musical instruments, and songs about the Central Highlands, the program will introduce to the audience in the Capital the distinctive characteristics as well as the diverse and rich traditional cultural values of the Central Highlands region. The vibrant and unique folk melodies of Central Highlands ethnic groups, harmonized with bamboo and rattan instruments and the sounds of gongs and chimes, create the majestic music of the mountains and forests – sometimes as melodious as the flowing streams, and other times thunderous like waterfalls… All resonate like a grand symphony encompassing the full range of emotions and colors of life echoing from ancient times. Through the unique combination of Central Highlands traditional instruments and the skillful performances of the artists, the works vividly recreate the lively sounds of the great mountains and forests, the harmony and connection between humans, nature and the divine. Especially, the program presents to the Capital’s audience the Central Highlands Gong Cultural Space, which has been inscribed by UNESCO as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
The musical drama “The Aspiration of Dam San” – Photo: Organizing Committee
On Sunday evening, April 13, the musical drama “The Aspiration of Dam San” will be performed at Cong Nhan Theater, 42 Trang Tien, Hanoi.
The musical drama “The Aspiration of Dam San” was produced based on the epic Dam San – a work collected by French ethnographer Sabatier in Dak Lak and published bilingually in Ede–French in Paris in 1927, which gained prominence among Western folklore researchers. The Dam San epic has been compared to renowned European heroic epics such as The Iliad and The Odyssey of Greece and “The Song of Roland” of France. In Vietnamese literature, the Dam San epic is one of the most outstanding works – a literary genre born from the rich, romantic and soaring imagination of the ancient Ede people in the Central Highlands.
Drawing from the Dam San epic, playwright Hong Hoa created the script “The Aspiration of Dam San” with new plot details and the message of praising the beauty of love in harmony with nature, especially glorifying the aspiration and romantic yet heroic beauty of the Ede people in the Central Highlands. The drama is performed by the Dak Lak Ethnic Folk Music and Dance Troupe, aiming to contribute to the restoration and preservation of Ede culture through music and visual theater, and is expected to become a unique and distinctive cultural tourism product of the Central Highlands region.
The musical drama “The Aspiration of Dam San” – Photo: Organizing Committee
Held on the weekend at the Hoan Kiem Lake pedestrian zone, the folk music and art program “The Call of the Highlands” and the musical drama “The Aspiration of Dam San” will bring to the audience a unique cultural space of the Central Highlands right in the heart of the Capital Hanoi.
Reporter