[KS] Finding a videotape of NK opera?

[Keith Howard]

John,

On watching CCTV the other night, and quite by accident, 'Spring Comes Every Year', one of the pangch'ang from Kkot panun yoja/The Flower Girl came on. This served to remind me that not just in North Korea, but in China as well, people remain very fond of 'revolutionary operas' and 'people's operas', and in no way consider them, or the speech that supposedly led to them, as zany. 

Videos are available, as are some old LPs (CDs also show up in the standard catalogues, but I have never seen them for sale in Pyongyang), from the North Korean state film distribution company. Getting hold of them is never particularly easy. At SOAS, I have LPs, scores, and a couple of videos of revolutionary/people's operas, but that doesn't help much since I won't be in my office for the next four months or so, I can't access them.

Keith Howard


-----Original Message-----
From: john at gorenfeld.net
To: Koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2004 14:25:43 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [KS] Finding a videotape of NK opera?

Dear Korean Studies List,

Hi, I'm a journalist writing an article on the tradition of North Korean
revolutionary opera (as promoted in Kim Jong-Il's zany 1970s treatise,
"Kim Jong-Il On the Art of Opera.")

I'm interested in seeing the production values first-hand, and was
wondering if anyone could offer advice on how one might go about finding a
tape of "Sea of Blood," "Flower Girl," or the like.

sincerely,

John
www.gorenfeld.net


 LPs, scores, and a couple of videos of revolutionary/people's operas, but that doesn't help much since I won't be in my office for the next four months or so, I can't access them.

Keith Howard


-----Original Message-----
From: john at gorenfeld.net
T
Dr Keith Howard
Reader in Music, SOAS; Director, AHRB Research Centre for Cross-Cultural Music and Dance Performance