A new chapter for Korean Opera: World premiere of "The Rising World: Spirit of Water"

On the cultural front.

An opera entirely in English planned and produced by the state-run Seoul Arts Center will premiere on May 25th that is NEXT Sunday to offer the audience here a performance that beautifully blends Korean and Western elements.

Our Lee Eun-hee has more.

This May, SAC will debut its first-ever original opera, "The Rising World: Spirit of Water."

Blending traditional Korean themes with a modern twist, the English-language production marks a major milestone, created entirely in-house, from story to music.

The opera tells the story of a princess captivated by a water spirit and a female artisan who builds a water clock to save a kingdom plagued by constant water disasters.

The cast features internationally acclaimed opera singers, including South Korean soprano Hwang Su-mi, as the princess and mezzo-soprano Kim Jung-mi as the artisan.

"I would say that the work portrays a human being, regardless of gender, who engages with nature, particularly through the element we call 'water.' It explores the relationship between humanity and nature."

The element of water is expressed in many ways throughout the music.

The opera's composer, Australian Mary Finsterer, explains that while you might hear it through electroacoustic sounds or a special instrument called a waterphone, the feeling of water mostly comes through the orchestra's instrumentation and the flowing ornamentation in the vocal lines.

The show will have its world premiere at the Seoul Arts Center's Opera House on May 25, followed by performances on May 29 and 31.

The creative team boasts international talent, including conductor Steven Osgood, praised for his work at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, leading the Korean National Symphony Orchestra.

"It's our window into the imagination of the composer and librettist. I get pages, hundreds of pages of music. But what it is on the page is dots of ink."

Those pages, filled with countless notes, are a world the conductor steps into.

He waters it and breathes life into it so the music can finally reach our ears.

Now, it's the audience's turn to step into that imagined world, and fully experience an opera like a powerful fairytale, one that flows with a message we can all feel.

Lee Eun-hee, Arirang News.