Korean-Ukrainian Carmen

The Friday before last Kyiv music lovers had a chance to appreciate the skills of opera singers from the Republic of Korea. Soloists of the BeSeTo Seoul Opera Company took part in Carmen at the National Opera of Ukraine. Founded in 1996, BeSeTo is one of over a hundred opera companies that South Korea boasts today. Its main goal is to promote cultural ties between Korea, Japan, and China. This is why the company’s name is an acronym of the three capitals’ names: Be for Beijing, Se for Seoul, and To for Tokyo. Its contacts with Ukraine started this spring, when the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine was on tour in Seoul. Our musicians performed Mozart’s Magic Flute. The Korean artistes’ recent visit to our country was initiated by Vakhtang Zhordaniya, who worked in Kharkiv a few years ago.

All BeSeTo singers honed their vocal skills in musical colleges of Europe and the US. Now they perform and teach music in their native country. Perhaps they needed more time to adjust to Ukrainian conditions, since Kang Hwa-Ja (Carmen) and Ben Beng Chola (Escamillo) obviously had some problems with their voices, while Pak Se Wong as Jose lacked artistic freedom. However, Na Keng He, indeed, pleased the public with her perfect singing and demonstrated the subtle nuances of her voice. The audience also appreciated Vakhtang Zhordaniya’s supreme skill that enabled him to conduct the whole performance with utmost confidence, keenly reacting to the singers’ slightest problems.

West-European classical music was first introduced in Korea after it was liberated from Japan’s occupation in 1945. It was then that the first symphony orchestra and European-style theaters appeared in this country. In a short period of fifty years the Republic of Korea has made great strides in both economic and cultural sphere. In the past few years the Koreans’ interest in classical music has grown dramatically. Many symphony orchestras have been opened. Concert halls and opera theaters that can accommodate several thousand viewers each have mushroomed in major cities. Young Koreans pursue education at the world’s most prestigious universities. It is quite probable that very soon Seoul will become one of the globally recognized music centers. Meanwhile, the developing cultural relations between our countries can prove very interesting and fruitful.