Korean revolutionary opera

North Korean studies scholar Alzo David-West writes that "Three of the alleged North Korean innovations in its national socialist realist musical theater are dynamic three-dimensional stage settings, stanzaic songs based on peasant-folk music, and panchang (an off-stage singing chorus), which in anti–Brechtian fashion constructs emotional links between character and spectator and controls the audience's interpretation of events.Kim Il Sung claimed to have written it with his comrades in a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) guerilla unit while fighting against the Japanese in occupied Manchuria, and performed it on a makeshift stage in a recently liberated village as a form of anti-colonial propaganda.[5] However, the veracity of this claim is disputed due to the difficulty of finding accurate information about Kim Il Sung's early life and guerilla career.Sea of Blood was followed by the rest of the "Five Great Revolutionary Operas": The Flower Girl, Tell O' The Forest!, A True Daughter of the Party, and The Song of Mount Kumgang.Revolutionary opera flourished in North Korea as Kim Jong Il began to take charge of many aspects of the country, particularly its arts and propaganda programs.[8] He was charged under Article 7, Paragraph 5 of the National Security Act[9] which punishes those who ‘possess or acquire’ and ‘produce, transport, or distribute’ subversive material.In order for opera to be able to reach the maximum number of people, throughout all of North Korea and beyond, the songs must be memorable and easily repeated, "composed in such a way that anybody can understand and sing", according to Kim.[14] Also central to North Korean revolutionary opera is the panchang, or off-stage song, describing the situation of the characters and their innermost thoughts and feelings.Sets and backdrops must be realistic and three-dimensional, and are typically lavish and elaborate, eschewing abstraction for reproduction of real life elements.is the story of Choe Byong-hung, a revolutionary who pretends to serve the Japanese during the occupation, but suffers the anger of the people of his village, who find his deception too convincing.According to the DPRK description, "The opera represents the transformation of the mountain area, once worthless under the Japanese oppression, into the people's paradise through the portrayal of the local girls' joyful life and the hero Hwang's personal experience".
Scene from Sea of Blood painted as a mural at the Pyongyang Grand Theatre , where the opera was premiered
PyongyangChosŏn'gŭlHanchaRevised RomanizationMcCune–ReischauerKoreanNorth KoreaChinese Revolutionary OperaCultural RevolutionpatriotismKim Il Sungworking peoplesocialist realistNorth Korean governmentKim Jong IlOn the Art of Operapropaganda songsp'ansorirevolutionary operaChinese Cultural RevolutionTaking Tiger Mountain by StrategyThe Legend of the Red LanternKorean instrumentsSea of BloodPyongyang Grand TheatreChinese Communist Partyoccupied ManchuriapropagandaThe Flower GirlTell O' The Forest!A True Daughter of the PartyThe Song of Mount KumgangConstitutional Courtsocialist realismproletariatKim dynastyJapanese occupation of KoreaKorean WarMaoistGaetanoKorean folk dancemakeupcostumingtraditional Korean instrumentsKorean People's ArmyWhere Are You, Dear General?List of North Korean operasThe Chosun IlboNK NewsKim Jong-ilUniversity of Southern CaliforniaAegukgaSouth KoreaAegukkaTraditionalInstrumentsPansoriPungmulNongakShinawiHyangakDangakJeongakHip hopBillboard K-Pop Hot 100List of K-pop on the Billboard chartsAlbumsTimelineGaon Singles ChartGaon Albums ChartList of North Korean musiciansList of South Korean musiciansList of female K-pop artistsList of male K-pop artistsList of South Korean idol groupsList of music festivals in South KoreaMusic programs of South Korea