WINNERS GALLERY

“We became the national opera company by presenting performances over 400 times, including regular performances and three special performances every year for 37 years.”

The Honam Opera Company, led by President Jangnam Cho, was founded in 1986 for the globalization of Korean music and the development of the local opera culture.

Securing a built-in audience through the quality of works, the Honam Opera Company was highlighted, producing ten creative operas using Korean rhythms.

President Cho emphasized, “the Honam Opera Company is evaluated as the champion in the creative opera field, including being listing as the Good Creative Opera Producer in the Korean Creative Opera category by the Korean Culture and Arts Committee for eight consecutive years.”

President Cho pointed out, “the works favored by the audience are popular for reasons.” He emphasized that popular operas, including operas by Verdi or Puccini are of great quality and the artistic value of each are sophisticatedly melted in the works. The audiences are willing to pay for such masterpieces. He explained that such values were embedded in Turandot, which is to be presented as the regular performance in 2022.

President Cho said, “It’s very significant for competitiveness to have ten creative operas using Korean rhythms, including ‘General Mung Bean, Jeon Bong-jun’ and ‘Chunhyang’. Each works adopted the rhythms and melodies engrained in our blood. We will make the best use of the fact that audience will feel familiarity when we harmonize the rhythms of Korean traditional musical instruments and Pansori with western music styles.”

For the future, “the Honam Opera Company has been supplementing good works with creative works. We will complete the creative works, ‘Wonhyo’ and ‘Swallow’, and actively promote them in global markets”, said President Cho.

The ten creative opera works using Korean rhythms include: “General Mung Bean, Jeon Bong-jun” (1999-2000), “East” (2002), “Chunhyang” (2003), “Twin Lily John, Lutgardis” (2014), “Seodong and Princess Seonhwa” (2005), “Nongae” (2006), “Sim Cheong” (2007), “Heungbu and Nolbu” (2008), “Lutgardis” (2013) and “Moon, Please Shine” (2017).