Achim Freyer’s “Das Rheingold” will kick off a two-year journey on Wednesday. The German producer’s latest opera -- the first installment of the Ring Cycle by Richard Wagner -- will premiere Wednesday at the Seoul Arts Center, where it will run until Nov. 18. The other three operas will be performed in the next two years. Singers perform during a rehearsal of Achim Freyer’s “Das Rheingold” on Monday at the Seoul Arts Center. (World Art Opera)Wagner’s Ring Cycle, or “Der Ring des Nibelungen,” is

Director Lee Kyung-sung’s “Love Story” is a play that is faithful to the theater’s fundamental function: imagination.“Love Story” follows on the heels of Lee’s 2017 work “Walking Holiday,” inspired by a walking tour of the Demilitarized Zone, which highlighted the reality of the divided Korean Peninsula.“Love Story,” however, is different as it provides a look at the physically unreachable land beyond the border. Actor Woo Bum-jin, actress Sung Soo-yeon and actor Na Kyung-min perform in “Love St

Park Su-geun’s 1961 work “People at the Marketplace” will be auctioned on Nov. 21 at K Auction’s November sale.Park is a Korean painter known for his artworks that portray the daily life of the Korean people in the mid-20th century. Park Su-geun’s “People at the Marketplace” (K Auction)The estimated price for “People at the Marketplace” is 4 billion won-5.5 billion won ($3.5 million-$4.9 million), the auction house said. The work was owned by a foreign collector for about 40 years before it was

The Seoul Arts Center on Wednesday began a run of director Lee Su-in’s “A Black Box,” a 2017 play written by Lee Kang-baek.The story was inspired by a real picture of King Gojong that was presented to a US president’s daughter, who is known to have made belittling remarks about it. A scene from “A Black Box” (SAC)Alice Roosevelt Longworth, daughter of US President Theodore Roosevelt, mentioned the picture in her autobiography, titled “Crowded Hours.” In the book, she wrote that King Gojong and t

Two acclaimed orchestras based in Munich will perform in Seoul later this month, in what are perhaps the most awaited concerts of the season. Their performances will feature pianists Sunwoo Ye-kwon and Evgeny Kissin, internationally acclaimed artists who enjoy huge popular following here. The Munich Philharmonic’s concert with pianist Sunwoo Ye-kwon takes place on Nov. 22 at Sejong Center. The concert will highlight two symphonic works: Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Major, Op. 26 and Mah

Violinist Yang In-mo on Monday released his first album under the Deutsche Grammophon label. The album is a live recording of a May 3 recital at Kumho Art Hall, where he performed all 24 caprices by Paganini.The latest album is imbued with his personal style, Yang, winner of the 2015 Paganini Competition, explained. “I think it was possible because it is Paganini. If I were to play Beethoven, it would have been totally different. (In other compositions) there is always a given formality (one is

Korean cellists Lee Sang-eun and Lee Jeong-hyoun won first prize at Isang Yun Competition 2018, Tongyeong International Music Foundation announced Saturday. Third prize went to Russian cellist Lev Sivkov, and Chun Yeh-jin won the Seong-Yawng Park Special Prize. There was no winner of the Isang Yun Special Prize this year, as participants who were to perform Yun’s cello concertos all failed to proceed to the final round. The special prize is given to an artist who wins a prize with a Yun composit

Actor Shin Sung-il died of lung cancer Sunday. He was 81.Shin was diagnosed with stage 3 lung cancer in June 2017 and was undergoing chemotherapy when his condition recently deteriorated.Shin was born Kang Shin-yeong in Daegu in 1937. He attended Kyungbock High School, an elite school in Seoul, but gave up going to college due to his family’s financial circumstances. In 1957, he joined director Shin Sang-ok’s studio, where he adopted the stage name Shin Sung-il at the director’s suggestion. Shin

Strong theatricality and musicality sum up the Korean National Ballet’s “Mata Hari.” The ballet company unveiled “Mata Hari” to the public and press Tuesday afternoon, ahead of the opening performance at the Seoul Arts Center the same evening. “Mata Hari” runs until Sunday.  The Korean National Ballet’s principal dancer, Kim Ji-young (right), performs with Lee Jae-woo during a “Mata Hari” press call Tuesday afternoon at the Seoul Arts Center. (Yonhap) The Korean National Ballet’s principal dance

Artist Han Jeong-sun’s exhibition “Untamed Thoughts” showcases her allegorical paintings, which deal with wildness and breaking free of constraints, at a local cultural center called The Forest in Nowon, Seoul. In Han’s view, capitalist societies with their repetitive daily routines have deprived contemporary people of their identities and their dignity. She sees contemporary civilization as a force that flattens individuality and represses the beast that is the human spirit. “Alice in Wonderlan

One of the greatest living ballerinas, Bolshoi Ballet’s prima ballerina Svetlana Zakharova will perform in the Universal Ballet’s “La Bayadere,” returning to Seoul for the first time since 2005 when she performed Giselle with the Universal Ballet in her late 20s.Although it has been some 13 years, Zakharova said that does not make a huge difference. “I still feel like I am a student. There is still much to learn. I am working on this project, and it keeps me going,” Zakharova said during a press

More than a century ago, the Lumiere brothers’ black-and-white documentary film “Workers Leaving the Lumiere Factory in Lyon” showed workers hurriedly exiting their workplace. The film survives as one of the most important records in the history of motion pictures.A century later, the late German artist and filmmaker Harun Farocki summoned the groundbreaking footage to yet another level of discourse. Farocki’s video installation titled “Workers Leaving the Factory in Eleven Decades” starts with

Korean nonfiction filmmaker Ahn Kearn-hyung was named the winner of this year’s SeMA-Hana Media Art Award, the Seoul Museum of Art announced Friday. The SeMA-Hana Media Art Award, founded in 2014, is awarded to a participating artist of Seoul Media City Biennale and is presented by the museum and Hana Financial Group. Ahn Kearn-hyung (SeMA) An installation view of “How to Stop Being Korean,” a 66-minute documentary introduced at Seoul Mediacity Biennale 2018 (SeMA)Ahn received the award in recog

Legendary opera singer Placido Domingo is to hold a concert Friday at Jamsil Indoor Stadium in Seoul, marking the Spanish tenor’s seventh visit to Korea since his first in 1991. “I have been different times in Korea for probably the last 20 years or more, and I have always enjoyed your city and the public who is so warm and love classic music and opera,” said Domingo during a press conference held on Wednesday at Lotte Hotel in Jamsil, Seoul. Domingo also praised “the sensibility of the people i

Internationally recognized artist Yang Hae-gue on Wednesday was honored with the Republic of Korea Culture and Arts Award at a ceremony at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art’s Seoul branch. The award is annually given by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, with a presidential citation. Yang could not attend the ceremony, so a family member accepted it on her behalf. Korean artist Yang Hae-gue (Kukje Gallery)The award was given to five artists across five categories, incl