Ho Chi Minh City Opera House - The À Ố Show by Vietnam Bamboo Circus @ Vietnam

It would be overwhelming to have just food and food, and more food for our inaugural trip to Ho Chi Minh City and the Great Kon decided to pencil in an activity that we don't even partake much in Singapore.

The À Ố Show by Vietnam Bamboo Circus! Honestly, I didn't really check out the details but well; I have full trust in Kon and bet he did his research.

Whatever the case, the show would be held at the magnificent Ho Chi Minh City Opera House! 125 years of age, it was of French colonial architecture and served as a government building from 1956 till 1975.

Restored in 1995, there were a few key features that stood out; one of which would be the pair of angels holding on to a Lyre guitar (I initially thought it was a harp).

Another would be the statues of two women, following the style of Greek Caryatids of Erechtheion; caryatid is defined as "sculpted female figure serving as an architectural support taking the place of a column or a pillar supporting an entablature on her head" whereas Erechtheion refers to the "Temple of Athena Polias". 

My friend enjoying the nice breeze!

The opera house faced the Nguyen Hue Music Fountain, and is in fact at the corner of the popular Nguyen Hue Walking Street. If you look further in front, you would see the McDonald's where we had supper on day one; appeared near but almost a kilometer away!

Collecting our tickets! p.s. we bought our tickets from Klook.com and the cost was S$41.35 per person for the the 'aah' section. You can consider the more expensive 'ooh' or 'wow' section; the more expensive it is, the more centre and / or closer you are to the stage.

We had almost three hours to spare before the show began, and there's no way we would just spend such precious time doing nothing! Walking past the two statues of a boy and girl playing a musical instrument.

And this beautiful musical garden that was apparently popular with the birds. We eventually decided to have massage at Temple Leaf Spa & Massage.

Back to Ho Chi Minh City Opera House about 30 minutes before the starting time of the show. According to one reviewer on Klook.com, there was a free short tour of the opera hour and the last one was 30 minutes before the show. 

The grand staircases flanking the entrance to the theatre; with the red carpet and the chandeliers, they proved to be a great spot for photo-taking!

Welcome drink for the "ooh" and "aah" guests; the thirst quenching lemongrass peach tea! I was thinking this was quite nice of the organizer since we don't get such treatment in Singapore.

Guests from the "wow" section had even better treatment, obviously. Not everything was complimentary though; red / white wine was chargeable at 100,000 dong each.

I am happy with my lemongrass peach tea.

Lobby where there was a table selling souvenirs for the À Ố Show; such things usually wouldn't be able to entice me to spend my money on.

But something caught my attention! The bamboo dragonfly which was able to balance itself; I knew this would amuse my niece and nephew! 

Price list for your reference; surprisingly, the items weren't very expensive; dragonfly was just 25,000 dong, less than S$2, when I was expecting to cost maybe S$5.

Time to step into the 500-seat theatre! 

Grand it sure was; and I couldn't take my eyes off the high ceiling with the golden motif in the center; just too mesmerizing! I guess there would be many such theatres in Europe. 

Three levels of seats!

I managed to seek permission to check out the top floor! The line of spot lights was disturbing; a bit like guns all pointing at the stage.

For your viewing pleasure! The jutting out seating on the second floor didn't seem to have any support beams underneath; hope it's structurally strong and safe.

Wondering what's thoát hiểm?

Both words were translated to "escape"! 

Waiting for the show to start! 

Unlike many performances nowadays, photo and video taking were disallowed at the À Ố Show. Well, I can't say I am disappointed as it means better concentration on actually catching the show. 

In summary, I would say it was an entertaining show, using bamboo as a medium to demonstrate the dearth of traditional usage, from the ancient times when the material was a construction material to build bridges to its more modern use as a bamboo poles for laundry, and also to hit the apartment upstairs for making too much noise! 

Dialogue was minimal and you may not even need it as you could somewhat derive from the body language. It's quite sad towards the end though, with the abandonment of bamboo by a visual display of it breaking up into fragments and /or with holes.

Cast would congregate at one of the grand staircases where they would sing and guests are more than welcome to take photos with them; not my cup of tea, even though I did enjoy watching. 

Video for your viewing pleasure!

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Location

07 Công Trường Lam Sơn, Bến Nghé, Quận 1, 

Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh 700000, Vietnam

Map

As above.

Click here for my 6 Days Itinerary in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) - Pearl of the Far East @ Vietnam