Toi mang noi buon va nang ganh uu tu tri tue nhin lai chinh cuoc doi cua minh: nguoi con gai mot minh di tu dong qua tay tren hanh trang van hoa den tu cha me.
STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS: FROM THIS OPERA SCENE (LINK ABOVE)...
...I remember the time spent in Los Angeles, talking to Burton Moss, who must have forgotten me already, to Guy Lee, who took over the agency of Betsy Loo and who told me if there was a film then I must be the one (I told KS Le Tuan of all such memory), the time spent in NYC, from the narrow hallway of Vincent Liff casting agency on Broadway, I stepped inside to meet the young Cameron McKintosh and his crew (who must all have forgotten me, of course, although I remember to this day the little black dress I wore). They were all sitting at a "Flash Dance" type of table, and in front of them I sang Giot Mua Tren La in English and Vietnamese: "Rain is the tears of Heaven, and Leaves are the heart of Earth. When Rain meets Leaves, there come the cries of my little Miss Saigon..." "A lawyer for the SEC, why are you here?" it was Cameron who asked.
STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS: FROM THIS OPERA SCENE (LINK ABOVE)...
...I remember the time spent in Los Angeles, talking to Burton Moss, who must have forgotten me already, to Guy Lee, who took over the agency of Betsy Loo and who told me if there was a film then I must be the one (I told KS Le Tuan of all such memory), the time spent in NYC, from the narrow hallway of Vincent Liff casting agency on Broadway, I stepped inside to meet the young Cameron McKintosh and his crew (who must all have forgotten me, of course, although I remember to this day the little black dress I wore). They were all sitting at a "Flash Dance" type of table, and in front of them I sang Giot Mua Tren La in English and Vietnamese: "Rain is the tears of Heaven, and Leaves are the heart of Earth. When Rain meets Leaves, there come the cries of my little Miss Saigon..." "A lawyer for the SEC, why are you here?" it was Cameron who asked.
The opera scene reminds me of who and what I am: a bearer of "that fruit of sorrow" called the intellectual burden of a girl who travelled alone from East to West, carrying with her the luggage of heritage -- the only inheritance to receive from her parents.
No i am not at all a die-hard loyalist to what is considered "essence of the Viet culture" ...quite to the contrary...I think in so many ways Miss Saigon was fabulous and this opera above was fabulous. In a way, I am glad Vietnam made its marks on the more global cultural scene, beyond that war, onto a "culture-blind" creative stage...
...why then a terrible sense of sadness and loss?
There was no Vietnamese involved in Miss Saigon. There was a Vietnamese involved in the opera, the essential role of all: the composer-librettist of my generation: the music professor P.Q.Phan, a specialist in contemporary classical music and perhaps a "boat person" who came to America in 1982?
(And i won't even mention the long list of Hollywood movies and books on Amazon.com--hundreds of titles, mine included.)
I don't have the luxury of time to write in Vietnamese so this will have to be all in English, with many points of references from other materials, and hence this will have to be a topic for another day...For now, please look at this most dramatic scene from the opera: what do you see and hear?
und copyright SEPT 12, 2017
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