Korean revolutionary opera

Korean Revolutionary Opera is a tradition of revolutionary opera in North Korea based on that of China during the Cultural Revolution. It is characterized by a highly melodramatic style and reoccurring themes of Korean nationalism and glorification of socialism, the Kim dynasty, and the working people, as well as a focus on socialist realist themes. Composers of North Korean revolutionary opera are employed by the North Korean government and the fundamental principles of North Korean revolutionary opera were dictated by Kim Jong-Il in his speech (later transcribed to book) On the Art of Opera.

North Korean revolutionary opera was preceded by the spread of juche propaganda songs that praised Kim Il-Sung and the nation, which itself replaced p’ansori – traditional Korean theatrical song. North Korean revolutionary opera was highly influenced by the original form of revolutionary opera developed as part of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, including such works as Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy and The Legend of the Red Lantern. North Korean studies scholar Alzo David-West writes that “Three of the alleged North Korean innovations in its national socialist realist musical theater are dynamic three-dimensional stage settings, stanzaic songs based on peasant-folk music, and pangchang (an off-stage singing chorus), which in anti–Brechtian fashion constructs emotional links between character and spectator and controls the audience’s interpretation of events. These appear in Maoist revolutionary opera”. However, North Korean revolutionary opera differed in several ways, most notably in its use of traditional Korean instruments alongside Western orchestral ones, and its permitting the display of romantic love and supernatural or magical elements, both of which were banned in Cultural Revolution-era China.

The first revolutionary opera in North Korea, Sea of Blood, was premiered at the Pyongyang Grand Theatre in July 1971, with Kim Il-Sung credited as the author and Kim Jong-Il credited as producer. The opera is seen as the primary example of North Korean revolutionary opera, with many North Korean texts referring to revolutionary opera as “Sea of Blood-style” opera. Sea of Blood was adapted from a 1969 film of the same name. Kim Il-Sung claimed to have written it with his comrades in a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) guerilla unit while fighting against the Japanese in occupied Manchuria, and performed it on a makeshift stage in a recently liberated village as a form of anti-colonial propaganda. However, the veracity of this claim is disputed due to the difficulty of finding accurate information about Kim Il-Sung’s early life and guerilla career.

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