Culture and ceramics

We've had the chance to experience a bit of Hanoi's cultural scene the last couple of days. On Tuesday night, Andy Holman and I attended a concert at the city's grand Opera House, built by the Friench in about 1902. We saw an orchestra, chorus, and soloists perform in a concert that was organized to celebrate the upcoming birthday of Ho Chi Minh (on 5/19) and the national elections (5/20). The music was all written by Vietnamese composers, and two of them conducted the orchestra. The best pieces by far were concertoes for bamboo flute and another traditional stringed instrument -- featuring amazing performances by the soloists.

Last night, the entire delegation attended a water puppet show. This is a classic north Vietnamese entertainment; lacquered puppets are used to tell folk tails. They are manipulated by puppeteers who stand waist-deep in a pool of water, and water plays a big role in the plots of the various vignettes. It's really fun -- the puppet movements are comical and surprisingly "life-like." An excellent orchestra of traditional instruments and singers accompanied the show -- all for an admission charge of about $3.50.

We spent much of the day yesterday at Bat Trang, a village of 100 ceramic factories and 2000 families. Ceramics have been produced here for 1000 years -- most for domestic consumption, although some of the factories are selling export ware to places like Pier 1 and WalMart Canada. We had the VIP treatment -- meetings with several of the more prominent ceramic artists in the village (with photos of those artists presenting pieces to the likes of President Bush and Bill Gates), and sort of a seminar in which factory owners asked for our advice about how to export more stuff to the US.

Remember what I said about flowers earlier? At Bat Trang, I was the lucky recipient of an elaborate welcome bouquet -- I think I was standing in the right place at the right time. Fortunately, we all were presented with a small vase at the end of our visit to the ceramics village, so I'm able to keep some of the flowers fresh and fragrant till I leave on Saturday.