Interesting you should mention the American model being exported to South
Korea. When I was in Seoul a few years ago, I attended two operas and a
performance of Strauss' "Vier letzte Lieder" at the
Sejung Cultural Centre, and was tickled to see just how reminiscent the
experience was to attending performances by companies here like Virginia
Opera and Opera Delaware. I was also intrigued by the fact that despite
the Sejung CC being in the middle of the "Embassy Row" area of Seoul, and
despite the operas - RIGOLETTO, MACBETH - being presented in Italian with
very traditional staging, and despite the huge American military presence
in Seoul, there was literally not one single non-Asian in the audience
besides myself. Granted, it was also odd to have the "surtitles" (in this
case, projected onto a large screen at the side of the stage) in Hangul,
but then that is the Korean language. And to observe that while the entire
opera company - principles, comprimarii, chorus, and orchestra (and in the
case of the Strauss, the soloist - soubrette Hellen Kwon) - were all
Korean, for all three events, the conductors were all from Europe.
Apparently, there is some kind of intrinsic belief that while natives can
sing and play Western music, they aren't competent to conduct it. (It also
felt very strange to be, on the average, 6"-12" taller than even the men
in the audience. I felt compelled to sit in the back of the hall, frankly,
so I wouldn't block anyone's sightlines.)
All in all, it was a pleasant, above-average competent evening of opera -
VERY traditionally staged (as I mentioned), and Hellen Kwon surprised me
in being able to project the Strauss quite easily over the orchestra (no
doubt, restrained by the Western conductor so they wouldn't swamp her
small but very agile, attractive voice; Kwon is known as the "Queen of
Mozart" in Korea, and also works in Europe).
KM
............................
NEIL SHICOFF, TENORE SUPREMO
http://www.radix.net/~dalila/shicoff/shicoff.html
My Own Website
http://www.radix.net/~dalila/index.html
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+ I sing hymns with my spirit, +
+ but I also sing hymns with my mind. +
+ - 1 Corinthians 14:15 +
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