Vietnam Culture Days beginning in Moscow

Monday will see the opening of Vietnamese Culture Days in the Russian Federation with a gala concert in the Maly Theatre.

The concert program includes performances of the Vietnamese National Music Orchestra, Hue Imperial Palace Dance Group, Vietnamese National Music and Dance Theatre. Famous musicians, pianist Tran Thu Ha and violinist Ngo Van Thanh, will also take part in the gala concert.

Russian spectators will have an opportunity to see the national Vietnamese opera "Ho Nguyet Co Transformed into a Fox", listen to the sound of traditional Vietnamese instruments. Original dances, based on national myths and legends, will show the Moscow audience an extraordinary choreographic art of the Thai people and people of the Taynguyen plateau.

Out of respect for Russians Vietnamese musicians and vocalists will sing Russian folk songs and perform musical compositions of Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich.

The Vietnamese delegation, including 100 culture and art workers, will be headed by Vietnam's Information and Culture Minister Pham Quang Nghi.

The program of the Culture Days also includes an exhibition of Vietnamese traditional costumes, an exposition of photographers' works, performances of actors and musicians of the fraternal nation, the "Sodruzhestvo" Russian concert company told RIA Novosti. The State Film Fund will host a round table of Russian and Vietnamese art workers as well as the demonstration of Vietnamese cinematographers' works.

"The two countries' cooperation in the culture area has significantly intensified in the recent years, according to President of Society of Friendship with Vietnam Yevgeni Glazunov. In 2001 Hanoi hosted Moscow Days and this summer Moscow hosted days of the Vietnamese capital. House of Russian Culture and Poetry is currently being built in Hanoi. Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Vietnam and Communist Secretary General Nong Duc Manh's visit to Russia also gave a powerful incentive for development of traditional friendship and cooperation between the two countries' people, Yevgeni Glazunov said.

Citizens of St. Petersburg and old Russian cities Kostroma and Vladimir will also have an opportunity to see the best Vietnamese groups. Vietnamese culture days in Russia will last till November 11th.