Gyeonggi Art Center's Music Drama 'It Must Be So' Exploring Beethoven's Life Performance

December 5th, 4 PM at Gyeonggi Art Center Grand Theater

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Byung-hee] Gyeonggi Arts Center will perform Beethoven's musical drama 'Es muss sein (It must be so · Es muss sein)' on December 5th at 4 PM at the Gyeonggi Arts Center Grand Theater.

This performance, prepared to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth, is a musical drama where the Gyeonggi Philharmonic, members of the Gyeonggi Provincial Theater Company, and outstanding artists come together to explore Beethoven's life from a unique perspective.

The title 'Es muss sein' is taken from a phrase in Beethoven's String Quartet No. 16. Beethoven wrote the phrase following the words 'Der Schwergefasste Entschluss (The Difficult Decision)' on the score, then posed the question 'Muss es sein? (Must it be?)', paused, and finally wrote the answer 'Es muss sein (It must be so)'. The reason why Beethoven included this phrase remains a mystery. This drama revisits Beethoven's meaning along with this phrase.

The play is set against specific years remembering Beethoven's birth and death, with the story unfolding continuously. It features Beethoven's music on the Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1977, Korean musicians who studied in Japan in the 1920s reflecting on Beethoven, a festival commemorating the 100th anniversary of Beethoven's birth, and scenes moving between his first concert and funeral, revealing stories about Beethoven. Characters appearing in the drama and performers on stage face questions of binary choices, and as they seek answers, each remembers Beethoven in their own way.

The audience also encounters questions related to Beethoven in every scene. The drama poses questions such as which single work of Beethoven should be preserved if only one could remain, whether music can be politically instrumentalized, and whether living like Beethoven was truly a happy life. The audience searches for answers through eight scenes. What kind of figure is Beethoven to us, and which Beethoven have we loved? In this way, we create our own Beethoven.

This performance is the third stage of the 2020 Gyeonggi Artist Stage Eoulyeoul Season 2. The Gyeonggi Artist Stage Eoulyeoul project is designed to encourage the free creative activities of Gyeonggi Province's artists and to promote creative collaboration, aiming to discover new performance content.

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