Unsuk Chin, a successful Korean composer, from Seoul National University who later studied with Gyorgy Ligeti, will be coming to Seoul next month for a video presentation of her opera, Alice in Wonderland at Kumho Art Hall. Chin’s latest orchestra piece, Rocana, just received its New York premiere, with Kent Nagano conducting. Below is a small excerpt from Alice in Wonderland.
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6 Comments
Actually, she is in Seoul quite often and is the composer in residence for the Seoul Philharmonic.
I predict this freaky opera will attract more of baduk’s ranting about Koreans on drugs.
Hehehe, maybe “user”. God bless and support composers but the staging is *so* German that I was rolling around, laughing. It does not help me that the composer shows too much of that European-style orchestration that has become almost like stock footage; the long string glissandi up to the nervous muted trumpets — subito.
Ouch.
Still, this is worth hearing, just so long as Chin does not start using back dancers.
I still marvel at how Yun Isang was able to take all that influence and still make it sound absolutely Korean at times.
Ha ha….you said Kumho.
Pronounced “coom-hoe” and it is a *very* nice performance space here in Seoul. The acoustics are fabulous.
Very evocative—I have images of Bugs Bunny and Leonard Bernstein waking up together in a trailer at Helmut Lachenmann’s Retirement Park.
Fascinating!