last night i went to a production of carl orff's carmina burana here in the ilsan. it was simultaneously amazing and disappointing. and how is that possible? fear not, i shall explain.
i randomly saw a poster for the production earlier this week. i don't know when the first time i heard carmina burana was, but i seem to recall it came from alicia (my older, musically inclined seester) in tdk cassette tape form. this was back in the days of me and jules making mixed tapes that featured nelson, u2, and songs from sister act, all on the same compilation. notice i had to mention julie too, so that i'm not the only one incriminated here. i am very pleased to say that our musical tastes have evolved, which is not to say that we no longer appreciate nelson, u2 or sister act (I and II, back in the habit), but maybe just not all together. you know, sensory overload.
my other musical outings in korea have been dismal, at best. this doesn't include rock bands i wrote about before, i'm talking about musical/theatrical endeavors. they always tend to have a korean bent to them. i believe the last "production" i went to was subway line 1 in suncheon. and that was fucking terrible. just terrible. so i didn't have high hopes for this performance. despite that, i splurged on a $30 ticket after finishing work last night. the venue itself was amazing, monolithic and modern. richardson auditorium it was not. i guess i forget that i live in a suburb of not only the largest city in korea, but one of the largest cities in the world.
i went in, bought a program, found my seat. i wasn't sure what to expect (i think i say that about a lot of things over here...), but the program said there was a ballet also. oh. ok. cool! i really wanted to be both a ballerina and a mechanic when i was little. so it's not surprising that now, in my old age, i don't know shit about cars and i can't dance. it's probably for the best, as i would have made one very awkward ballerina. i'm graceful like a giraffe. but i do enjoy watching ballet.
onstage there was an interesting set featuring a large wheel (yes, of fortune) and the ruins of what appeared to be a courtyard. the choir was wearing monk/abbey looking robes (just like the ones on the new belgium abbey beer labels), as were the dancers. they eventually wore more traditional ballet garb--second skin pants for the dudes, flowy dresses for the chicks. so the production began and the orchestra was amazing, the set was amazing, the dancers were the most amazing, the choir was amazing, the large video screens with the english and korean translations were amazing. what was not amazing was the fact that they were singing all the songs to this beautiful latin opera in korean. i'm going to go out on a limb and say i'm not the only person who thinks the korean language isn't a thing of particular beauty. if anything, it's what comes to mind when you try to think of something that is distinctly NOT beautiful. nasal and whiney. i really have no idea why they sang the whole thing in korean and not in the original latin. even the choir who performed before the actual production sang a whole program in latin. so it's not that they couldn't do it, it's that they opted against it for some reason. i dunno. if you're going to an italian opera in new york, you probably don't expect the people to sing it in english. so the korean language definitely took away from the whole experience. there was no "dulcissime" it was turned into "naaaeeeee-ggggaaaaahh.!!!!" granted, the soloists were AMAZING, but it just would have been so much better had they sung in latin. and of course, the jamie who is continually down on korea thought oh, this is just another way that koreans are ethnocentric. "why would we want to perform this outdated opera in latin, when we are koreans? koreans sing in korean language." but it definitely made some parts of the production sound more like traditional nasal korean songs, than old, beautiful latin songs. like in the lemonade commercials here. yes, i realize how few people have any idea what the fuck i'm talking about when i mention korean lemonade commercials.
the highlight of the show, besides the vocal acrobatics of all the soloists, was the song "Cignus ustus cantat (The Roast Swan)". these two robed dancers came out carrying a pole with another dancer hanging from it. he was dressed in some sort of loin cloth/feathers ensemble. but as they hoisted this pole up and down, this man dressed as a swan-man did pull ups, one armed pull ups and other various acrobatic feats on this bar. but it was all done with the fluidity of motion of ballet. it was sort of unbelieveable. my jaw dropped. and i didn't have to worry about anyone next to me seeing my jaw drop, as the ticket lady made sure to give the foreign chick an entire row of seats to herself, lest the korean people have to sit next to me.
and yes, i went to the show by myself. i pretty much do everything alone these days. i have no problem with that, but so many other people don't understand why i don't want to surround myself with a posse or something. i don't think my self-sufficience should be a pitiable or enviable thing. it just is.
but anyway. overall i was thoroughly impressed with the majority of the production.
and that's that. busy, yet boring days for jamie leigh mcgeorge.
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