The Korea Herald

KNO to start 50th anniversary celebrations with ‘La Boheme’

Mar 20, 2012

The Korea National Opera will celebrate its 50th anniversary this year starting with a reinterpretation of Giacomo Puccini’s masterpiece “La Boheme,” the company said on Tuesday. The country’s leading opera company will collaborate with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra led by maestro Chung Myung-hwun to stage one of Puccini’s greatest works on April 3-6 at the Seoul Arts Center’s Opera Theater.“Maestro Chung and I worked intensively on music reading when we collaborated in Verdi’s ‘Simon Boccane
Chris Rock, Bette Midler and more to be presenters

Mar 20, 2012

NEW YORK (AP) ― The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony will likely be a little more irreverent this year: Chris Rock is set to be one of the A-list presenters for the April event.The comedian is due to induct the Red Hot Chili Peppers into the hall at the ceremony at the Rock Hall in Cleveland on April 14. He’s a big fan and has been a friend of the band for a while.Rock will join Bette Midler, who will induct the late singer-songwriter Laura Nyro; John Mellencamp, who will induct for
Veteran musicians to hold concert

Mar 19, 2012

Members of the National Academy of Arts will hold their first concert at the Sejong Center for Performing Arts in Seoul on March 30, the Culture Ministry said on Monday.The National Academy of Arts is an institution formed in 1954 by the government to honor works by veteran Korean artists in and out of the country. The upcoming concert is the first-ever musical event to be performed by musicians who are members of the academy.The list of artists includes violinist Kim Min, director of the Korean
Manic SXSW wraps up with poignant moment

Mar 19, 2012

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) ― Stars of all stripes and celebrity hit town to close out South By Southwest, but it was a marching band that stole the show Saturday.Members of the Austin High band watched their star turn in the premiere of filmmaker Emmett Malloy’s “Big Easy Express,’’ then joined documentary subjects Mumford & Sons, Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeroes and Old Crow Medicine Show in an outdoor concert at the University of Texas as the music conference fell into an exhausted heap on its fi
Norah Jones to play entire new album at SXSW

Mar 18, 2012

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) ― Norah Jones is unveiling something new at South By Southwest ― again.Ten years after she shook Austin and the music world with “Come Away With Me,’’ the 25 million-selling debut she released just weeks before the 2002 conference and festival, she’s returning to play her entire new album “Little Broken Hearts’’ at La Zona Rosa on Saturday night.“It seemed to make sense to come back to my new record,’’ Jones said. “I’m just going to play the new record. I’m not even going to p
Jagger-Richards spat: It’s all over now

Mar 18, 2012

NEW YORK (AFP) ― We all need someone to lean on, and the founding duo of the Rolling Stones say they’re doing just that after overcoming three decades of misunderstandings with a year of some heavy conversation.In an interview with Rolling Stone, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards said they rebuilt their friendship after guitarist Richards’s best-selling 2011 memoirs “Life” laid bare his pent-up frustration with the snake-hipped frontman.“In the 1980s, for instance, Keith and I were not communicatin
Eyelike

Mar 16, 2012

The Decemberists‘ live CD a mixed bagThe Decemberists“We All Raise Our Voices to the Air (Live Songs 04.11-08.11)” (EMI)If anyone ever needed proof that live albums have worth, they should check the marketplace: The Who’s ``Live at Leeds (Super Deluxe Edition)" now fetches $300 on the Internet. Still, despite the many classic live albums that have been released, they‘re often a mixed bag, and that’s the case with the Decemberists’ new 20-track collection from their 2011 tour.PRO: The performance
Bobbi Kristina dating 'adopted' brother

Mar 16, 2012

Bobbi Kristina Brown's maternal grandmother, Cissy Houston, is upset the teen is romantically involved with a man her mother, Whitney, helped raise, TMZ said.Brown has been making headlines since Whitney Houston died in a Beverly Hills, Calif., hotel room last month at age 48. The singer's only chil
Rihanna says collaboration with Brown ‘made sense’

Mar 16, 2012

NEW YORK (AP) ― People have been scratching their heads over Rihanna’s musical collaboration with Chris Brown, but she says it “made sense” and it’s “innocent.”Brown appears on a remix of her song “Birthday Cake,” and she appears on a remix of his “Turn up the Music.” Their music union is noteworthy because Brown beat up Rihanna three years ago and is still on probation for the assault.Rihanna says it was her idea for Brown to appear on her song because he’s “the hottest R&B artist” right now. H
No Rolling Stones tour yet despite 50th anniversary

Mar 15, 2012

NEW YORK (AFP) ― The Rolling Stones are staying put this year, Rolling Stone reported Wednesday, leaving fans to look forward instead to a major documentary marking the rock band’s 50th anniversary.“Basically, we’re just not ready” for a fresh concert tour, guitarist Keith Richards told the pop culture magazine, adding that 2013 was the group’s “more realistic” target for hitting the road.Quoting other, unidentified sources, Rolling Stone cited worries about Richards’ health in the wake of a hea
Jane Birkin to sing ‘miracle songs’ by Serge Gainsbourg

Mar 15, 2012

French singer, actress and activist calls her daughter Charlotte a greater actressJane Birkin said the Serge Gainsbourg songs she will sing at her Seoul concert scheduled on March 22 were “miracles.”“In this show, I do sing a great many of the songs from ‘Babe Alone in Babylone,’ I think Serge wrote miracles for me,” she said in an e-mail interview.At her concert, the 66-year-old singer and actress will pay homage to her former partner and mentor who died in 1991. Birkin and Gainsbourg had a pa
Musical harmony: NKorean, French orchestras play

Mar 15, 2012

PARIS (AP) _ A North Korean and a French orchestra performed a landmark concert on Wednesday, adding a note of harmony to longstanding tensions between the isolated nation and the West. South Korean conductor Chung Myung-whun, right, directs the last rehearsal of members of North Korea's Unhasu Orch
Korea Foundation spring concert to feature music of Norway

Mar 14, 2012

The Korea Foundation and the Norwegian Embassy are co-hosting a spring concert at LG Arts Center on April 17.“Korea Foundation Spring Concert 2012: The Lyricism of Norway” will feature the husband-and-wife team of conductor and violinist Stephan Barratt-Due and violist Chung Soon-mi, as well as Korean pianist Chong Park. Barratt-Due is also the artistic director of the Barratt-Due Institute of Music in Norway.The program for the evening includes familiar favorite “Tarantella” by Franz Liszt as w
Year of Bach at Seoul Arts Center

Mar 14, 2012

A chamber orchestra will hold a series of concerts featuring music by Johann Sebastian Bach throughout the year, Seoul Arts Center said.Since 2010, the center has been holding “The Great 3B Series” which explores the music of three great composers: Bach, Beethoven and Brahms. This year the focus is on Bach ― his concertos and symphonies ― with the Korean Chamber Orchestra led by its artistic director and violinist Kim Min leading the performances. The first of the six-concert Bach series will be
Slash mum on Guns N’ Roses reunion

Mar 14, 2012

LONDON (AP) ― Will Guns N’ Roses reunite for their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?Behind his dark glasses, hat and big hair, the group’s former guitarist Slash is staying noncommittal on the subject.The million-selling hard rock group enters the Rock Hall in Cleveland on April 14, an event at which honored acts often perform as part of the celebration. But the group’s original lineup fell apart in 1996, so fans hoping to see the band reunite may be disappointed.“It’s definitely an