Korean Sounds - East Meets West: Love

This concert focuses on the dramatic genres – opera from the West and pansori (the musical storytelling from ancient Korea) from the East. In the first half of the concert, the pansori singers Eunhye Jung and Sukki Yoon perform various excerpts from the pansori canon, including three love songs from the most famous pansori ‘Chunhyangga’. Chunhyangga is the opera form of the novel ‘Chunhyangjeon’ a love story about Chunhyang Sung, the daughter of a courtesan, and Mongyong Lee, the son of an aristocrat.

In the second half of the concert, Korean tenor Konu Kim and Australian soprano Lauren Fagan, both from the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme of the Royal Opera House, showcase opera arias. The concert concludes with Puccini’s love duet from the opera La bohéme, ‘O Soave Fanciulla’. One of the most romantic operas of all time, La bohéme is a sweetly tragic story about love and loss set in the Latin Quarter of Paris in the 1830s. O Soave Fanciulla, one of the repertoire’s most sublime duets, is about the two main characters’ newfound passion for each other.

With this our fourth ‘East Meets West’ concert, the audience will see and hear how the most powerful of all human emotions can be expressed in two different musical formats.

Programme:

Mancheobcheongsan Sarangga (love song) from Chunhyangga

Jajin Sarangga (love song) Ibsechang from Chunhyangga Memory

Farewell song and Ssukdaemeori from Chunhyangga

Namdo minyo heungtaryeong

Reunion between father and daughter from Simcheongga

Greig Ein Traum from 6 Songs, Op. 48

R Strauss Beim Schlafengehen from 4 Letzte Lieder, TrV 296

Schubert Du bist die Ruh, D.776

Guy d’Hardelot Because

Roger Quilter My Life’s Delight from 7 Elizabethan Lyrics, Op. 12

Juwoon Kim Like the wind Lotus goes to meet

De Curtis Ti voglio tanto bene

Puccini ‘Musetta’s Waltz’ from La bohème

Lehár Dein ist mein ganzes Herz

Catalani ‘Ebben? ne andrò lontana’ from La Wally

Puccini ‘O Soave Fanciulla’ from La bohéme

Artists:

Eunhye Jung pansori singer

Sukki Yoon pansori singer

Taeyong Kim percussion

Konu Kim tenor

Lauren Fagan soprano

Jae Eun Shin piano

Biographies:

Eunhye Jung (Pansori singer)

Eunhye Jung, a prima donna of pansori, is well known for performing the main role in Changgeuk, a popular Korean opera. Eunhye obtained her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Korean Music from Seoul National University and was awarded both the Grand Prize at the 17th Dong-A Korean Traditional Music Competition and the Outstanding Talent Who Will Lead 21st Century award.

She began learning the art of pansori from the age of 7 and by the age of 18 was singing the complete 8 hour Chunhyangga in a single performance, a story that traditionally might be sung over the course of two days, or at least interspersed with periods of recovery or relaxation. Since then, she has sung pansori’s five madang (the 5 pansori operas) – Chunhyangga, Simcheongga, Heungbuga, Jeokbyeobga and Sugungga.

In 2013, she joined the National Changgeuk Company of Korea where she has continuously pursued the preservation, standardization and popularization of traditional changgeuk through the staging of original, contemporary changgeuk performances. By 2015, she had performed 12 different roles in various pieces such as ‘Medea’ in Changguek Medea which is a modernized changgeuk-adaptation of the ‘Euripides’ classic, Janghwa in Janghwa and Hongryun which is based on the traditional “Tale of the Two Sisters”, Beatrice in Dante’s Divine Comedy, Yeon-ji in HwaSun Kim Hong-do and many others. Currently she is a representative of the Eun Hye Jung Company.

Konu Kim (Tenor)

South Korea-born tenor Konu Kim began his musical education at the age of 6, playing piano and violin. He studied voice at the Kyung-hee University in Seoul and finished his studies as a Bachelor of voice music and a Master of musicology. While studying at the Korea National Opera Academy, he made his professional opera debut at the Seoul Art Center as Giudice in ‘Un Ballo in Maschera’. Kim has won several competitions in his native country, including the Korea National Opera Competition. He was also laureate of the International Opera Singing Competition of Marmande (France) in 2014 as well as the Concerso Internazionale di Canto Lirico ‘G.B.Rubini’ (Italy), Concorso Internazionale di Canto ‘Marcelo Giordani’ (Italy), International Moniuszko Vocal Competiton (Poland), Concorso Internazionale di Canto Lirico ‘Zandonai’ (Italy).

Lauren Fagan (Soprano)

Australian soprano Lauren Fagan is a recent graduate of the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden where she has attracted significant attention over the past two seasons for her main stage performances as Oscar (Un ballo in maschera), Papagena (Die Zauberflöte) and Giannetta (L’elisir d’amore). Lauren has also developed an extensive repertoire with roles including Musetta (La bohème), Ines (Il trovatore), Sophie (Werther), Jemmy (Guillaume Tell), Lia (L’enfant prodigue), Suor Genovieffa (Suor Angelica), Blue Fairy (The Adventures of Pinocchio) and Lila (The Firework-Maker’s Daughter).

Sydney-born Lauren graduated with a Bachelor of Business before moving to London to take a place on the prestigious opera course at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama where she was the recipient of several awards.