VietNamNet Bridge – Popular sopranos Ngoc Tuyen and Trieu Yen have released their first album, which blends opera and dance electronic music.

Dancing queens: Queens of the Night, featuring opera and dance music by Ngoc Tuyen and Trieu Yen, was released in HCM City last Friday.

The two, part of the HCM City Music Conservatory, recorded the album with music by the country's most famous DJ, Hoang Anh, at his own studio.

"We have worked for three years to perfect the album," Tuyen said at the release in HCM City on Friday.

Queens of the Night features eight songs by composers like Puccini, Mozart, Delibes, Borodin, Mascagni, Faure, and Pachelbel that were arranged to make them suitable for the two women to sing.

Nguyen Minh, the album's producer, said: "Most of the songs are for soloists, so composer Le Hong Phuc was invited to arrange them."

The songs are in English, French, Italian, and German.

The album's highlights are Queen of the Night from Mozart's opera The Magical Flute, and Un bel di from Puccini's Madama Butterfly, in which the duo hit the high notes.

Stranger in Paradise from Borodin's Prince Igor and Voi che sapete from Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro are remixed in disco and reggae style.

There are also songs in chill-out style with gentle melody — like Pachelbel's Canon and The Flower Duet from Delibes's Lakme.

Tuyen said: "Classical music is more popular in the world than in Viet Nam, but the album will make it more well-known, especially among young people."

Tuyen and Yen, both graduates in vocal music from the conservatory, have been invited to perform at classical and chamber music concerts by the HCM City Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera and others.

Tuyen is now doing a post-graduate course in vocal music, while Yen is the director of a music programme in Viet Nam by Trinity College London.

Queens of the Night is the first production of Diva Club, a project to combine classical music with dance music.

Minh said: "The project members are working to popularise the album among fans and musicians through live performances in mid-2014, and also preparing for the next production."

Source: VNS