[KS] Finding a videotape of NK opera?

[jose cristian ariosa perez]

Sorry, but the North Korea's revolutionary operas are really very difficult 
to see until the ending. Of course, if someone want to analyse the 
dramaturgie and the objetive a subjetive (real and irreal) message of NK 
operas, it is inevitable to see the opera in live (minimum a video tape).

But, something important is that all NK revolutionary operas are descripted 
in BOOKS as novels or simply as Opera's book, editing in Korean Language and 
also in other foreign languages.

Maybe it will be easier to find a book than a tape.

Best regards,

J. Ariosa

>From: "Tatiana.Gabroussenko" <Tatiana.Gabroussenko at bigpond.com>
>Reply-To: Korean Studies Discussion List <Koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
>To: "Korean Studies Discussion List" <Koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
>Subject: Re: [KS] Finding a videotape of NK opera?
>Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2004 10:55:13 +0300
>
>  Are the revolutionary operas zany? It is an interesting question. Many
>years ago, being a fresh student of Korean studies, I attended "Kot p'anu:n
>ch'onyo" at Moscow Bolshoi Theatre--mostly, for educational purposes. It 
>was
>given by a North Korean group on tour. Since the very beginning it became
>clear to me that it would not be the best time in my life. Three or four
>hours of loud cries, stilted sentimental garbage and blatant propaganda, 
>the
>time, which I prepared to spend yawning and giggling. But I then looked
>around and found something unexpected. I was,probably, the only non-Korean
>person in the whole theatre, most of the public constituted middle-aged or
>old Soviet Koreans. And those people around took the opera deadly serious!
>They were fully attentive, they cried, not giggled, at the pathetic 
>moments.
>And they were too numerous to be just paid agents of Pyongyang.
>
>  It made me reconsider the situation. I still did not like the opera. But 
>it
>came to me that it must be much more than simple propagandistic exercise of
>Stalinist type. Surely, the opera evoked some essential cultural images 
>that
>touched the Soviet Korean public so much. The images which I, as an 
>outsider
>barely familiar with Korean culture, just did not sense.
>
>Best regards,
>Tatiana.
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Keith Howard" <Kh at soas.ac.uk>
>To: <Koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
>Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2004 2:32 PM
>Subject: Re: [KS] Finding a videotape of NK opera?
>
>
>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
>
>
>



J. Ariosa

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