Senior musicians join hands to open opera history museum

Senior musicians and opera singers promised to cooperate to build a museum for South Korean opera history. Former general director of the National Opera of Korea Park Soo-kil held a press conference at Koreana Hotel in central Seoul on Monday accompanied by EO Technics Chairman Sung Kyu-dong, known as a big fan of opera music, composer Lee Geon-yong (former president of the Korea National University of Arts) and other music leaders. “A promotion committee was set up on May 19 to establish a South Korean opera history museum, he announced.

A total of 12 founding members joined the promotion committee including eight opera singers such as soprano Lee Kyu-do (former dean of Ewha Womans University College of Music) and tenor Park Sung-won (former general director of the National Opera of Korea) as well as the other four such as director Kim Hong-seung and conductor Kim Duc-ki. Park Soo-kil and Sung Kyu-dong jointly took charge of the committee.

Co-Chairman Park said, "We feel sorry that we have lost historically significant materials as elder leaders in opera passed away. It is urgent to secure and collect such materials.” Co-Chairman Sung, who served as director and auditor of the Korean Wagner Society, said, “We plan to temporarily store materials that we have collected at the headquarters of EO Technics in Anyang City, Gyeonggi Province until we can prepare some separate storage.” The members of the committee considered that one of the most desirable options is to build a museum within the Opera Theater in Seoul Arts Center in Seocho District, Seoul, according to Park.

“South Korea has grown as one of the most influential cultural leaders in the world,” composer Lee Geon-yong said. “As many as 20 operas are created in the country, which only make it meaningful for us to open this museum.”

Professor Son Soo-yeon of culture and arts at Dankook University, a data collector and curator in this project, said, "We are waiting to hear from anyone who possesses any materials related to operas that have been domestically created or performed such as sheet music, images, program books, audiovisual data and recordings or is aware of where such materials are stored.”


gustav@donga.com