The Korea Opera Festival Opens on August 7... Performances Including the Original Opera 'Red Shoes'

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Byung-hee] The 11th Korea Opera Festival will open on August 7.

The Korea Opera Festival began in 2010 and this year was selected as an excellent performing arts program by the Korea Arts Council’s Korea Performing Arts Festival. It is organized by the Korea Opera and Ballet Festival Promotion Group and supported by the Seoul Arts Center.

The 11th Korea Opera Festival was originally planned to be held in two parts, in the first and second halves of the year, but due to the impact of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) sweeping the world, the performance scheduled for June at the Seoul Arts Center Jayu Small Theater was postponed to next year. However, four operas scheduled to be performed in August at the Seoul Arts Center Opera Theater and CJ Towol Theater will proceed as planned.

The Korea Opera Festival is supported by the Seoul Arts Center, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Korea Arts Council, and the Korea Opera Association, with four opera companies participating this year. At the Opera Theater, Nuova Opera Company’s Cheonsaengyeonbun, Kim Sun International Opera Company’s The Barber of Seville, and Beseto Opera Company’s Die Fledermaus will be performed, while the National Opera Company’s new work The Red Shoes will be presented at CJ Towol Theater.

The three operas performed at the Opera Theater all convey cheerful and enjoyable love stories.

Cheonsaengyeonbun is an opera filled with Korean sentiment by blending traditional pansori techniques and rhythms with operatic style. This performance will present the 2014 revised version in the form of the 2006 premiere at the Frankfurt Opera House in Germany.

The Barber of Seville by Rossini is a representative work of opera buffa (comic opera). It will be conducted by Italian conductor Carlo Paleschi, who led Korea’s first outdoor opera Turandot (2013, Sangam World Cup Stadium), and directed by Giorgio Bonzovanni.

Die Fledermaus, the essence of Viennese operetta by Johann Strauss II, depicts an exciting story of mutual deception with light and enjoyable music and dialogue.

The Red Shoes is a creative opera composed by Jeon Ye-eun, based on Andersen’s fairy tale The Red Shoes. Unlike the original, it tells a story where Madam Shoes, who was expelled from the village 20 years ago, returns to take revenge on the pastor who abandoned her and approaches his daughter Karen, offering a sharp perspective on modern society.

The Korea Opera Festival announced that it will hold performances in compliance with infection prevention rules at the venue, including mandatory mask-wearing, questionnaire completion, and temperature checks using thermal cameras, in cooperation with the Seoul Arts Center.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.