New director of Korea National Opera presents opera L’Orfeo

New director of Korea National Opera presents opera L’Orfeo. July. 07, 2015 07:09. suhchoi@donga.com.

Korea National Opera’s newly-appointed artistic director Kim Hak-min presents L’Orfeo as his debut project.

L’Orfeo, which is to be presented for the first time in Korea by Seoul Metropolitan Opera (Director Lee Geon-yong), is an opera written by Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi in the 16th century. Monteverdi is widely recognized as the father of Italian operas since he gave life to an unknown genre called "opera" and transformed it into a composite art with music and drama.

L’Orfeo is the earliest surviving opera, which is still regularly performed. It is based on the tragic Greek legend of Orpheus and his bride Eurydice. In the opera, Orpheus who has an ability to charm all living things and even stones with his music attempted to retrieve his dead and beloved wife from the underworld. “L’Orfeo has never been staged during the past 70 years of Korean opera history. As a person who is proud of the long history of opera in Korea, I wanted to put this opera on the stage,” said Lee.

The local opera circles are paying keen attention to the opera as it is presented for the first time in Korea and is directed by the newly-appointed director. After the news has been known to the public that Kim was nominated to artistic director of the Korea National Opera, some insiders opposed to the appointment citing that Kim lacks experiences to lead the national opera group.

“Kim has successfully directed opera Aida for two times in cooperation with me. As L’Orfeo is a fantasy story that transcends time and spaces, similar to Aida, I expect Kim would do a good job,” said Lee.

Kim has chosen a concept for the opera as "path." As the main character Orpheus is walking back and forth on the path between the underworld and this world, Kim wants to present the path in various forms.

Conductor Yang Jin-mo is to play a cembalo with cembalist Kim Hee-jeong for singers on the stage. Music director Jeong Gyeong-yeong, the early chamber music professor at Hanyang University, has rearranged and orchestrated musical instruments. Seeing differently-interpreted Orpheus by double-cast singers, baritone Han Kyu-won and tenor Kim Se-il, would be another point to attract audiences.

The opera will be performed from July 23 to July 26, 2015 at M Theater of Sejong Center for the Performing Arts.