The well-known ‘La Boheme’ opera by Italian composer, Giacomo Puccini, will be performed on January 13-14, 2009 at the Hanoi Opera House, drawing the participation of Swedish director Marten Forslund, British conductor Graham Sutcliffe and other singers from the Vietnamese Opera Ballet Theatre.

The event is a cooperative project between the Vietnam Opera Ballet Theatre and the Swedish Norrlands Opera Theatre.

Swedish director Marten said this story is one of the most famous in Italian opera history, first performed in Turin, Italy in 1986. The opera story tells of artists living in Paris in the late 19^th century, suffering from tuberculosis and living in poverty, but always full of love.

The event will also attract 15 foreign artists who are members of the Hanoi International Choir. The opera performance is under the framework of a project to support the development of Vietnam’s culture during the 2005-2009 period, financed by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).

Following the project, every year the Vietnam Opera Ballet Theatre will set up an operatic performance with the support of the Swedish Norrlands Opera Theatre. The opera ‘Cosi Fan Tutte’ was staged in 2006 and the ‘Flying Dutchman’ in 2007. After ‘La Boheme’, the two opera theatres will continue to produce and stage a ‘Blog Opera’ titled ‘Dream and Reality’.