Greek tragedy in 'changgeuk' sweeps Europe

A scene from National Changgeuk Company of Korea's "Trojan Women" / Courtesy of NTOK

By Kwon Mee-yoo

VIENNA -- Celebrated European composers Beethoven and Schubert premiered their works at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, Austria. Last Saturday, the National Changgeuk Company of Korea (NCCK) presented "Trojan Women" in the form of "changgeuk" (a Korean musical theater form featuring pansori) at the historic theater, pushing Vienna's musical theater into new territory.

The Vienna Festival invited this minimal yet dynamic production as its closing performance for this year and the theater was filled with an audience from the center of classical music.

Despite worries over the unfamiliar musical style, the audience gave thunderous applause, stamped their feet just like ancient Greek audiences did to show appreciation and even gave a standing ovation to this unaccustomed performance.

The changgeuk adaptation of the Greek tragedy, directed by Singaporean director Ong Keng Sen, features pansori composed by Human Cultural Asset Ahn Sook-sun and contemporary music written by musician Jung Jae-il for the script written by Korean playwright Bae Sam-sik.

Led by Hecuba (played by Kim Kum-mi), the Queen of Troy, the changgeuk vocalizes stories of women in war, including Hecuba's daughter Kassandra (Yi So-yeon), widowed princess Andromache (Kim Ji-sook) and wife of the Spartan King Menelaus, Helen (Kim Jun-su), though now belonging to the Trojan prince, Paris. Director Ong got a male performer to play Helen, accompanied with piano, to emphasize the character's in-between nature.

Moritz Lobeck, curator of the Vienna Festival, said "Trojan Women" is not only a great production but fitted with the festival's theme this year.

"Everything has a story and we have to combine it with the topic of the festival. This year, the theme is fear in society. You could find demonstrations on the streets and people don't feel secure about new people coming from outside. Bringing productions from outside where similar things are going on can give as a positive approach to new things," Lobeck said.

National Changgeuk Company of Korea's "Trojan Women" at Theater an der Wien in Vienna, Austria / Courtesy of NTOK

The 2018 Vienna Festival's opening performance was "Die Orestie," another Greek tragedy directed by Turkish German director Ersan Mondtag, and Lobeck said "Trojan Women" provided a perspective from the other side.

"'Die Orestie' is about the origin of European society from our view. At the end of the festival, we have 'Trojan Women,' telling our story from a different perspective," Lobeck said. "The production itself is also interesting as a mixture of traditional pansori and contemporary K-pop."

Audiences seem to accept the new style of performance with curiosity and openness. "In the beginning of the first half, the audience encounter much emotion. However in the end, they are on the same page as the performers and share their feelings. This is very new to them and they need some time to learn about it. I think it's a way of singing where authentic emotion comes from,” Lobeck elaborated.

Georg Molnar, a regular to the Vienna Festival, came to see "Trojan Women" with his friends.

"When I read this year's program, I was interested in 'Trojan Women.' I liked it most of the time and the music and instruments were very cool. The sound of the music, not the rhythms, was very new to me. I like the scenery, but the projections sometimes brought too much pathos," Molnar said.

Another audience member, Gerrit Zach said she was touched by the powerful performance.

"The music style went well with the strong emotional story. When the women stood on top of the structure on stage, I could feel the intensity coming from the singers," Zach said. "I find it intriguing that Helen is played by a man at a time when gender roles are being redefined across the world. He played out the character very well."

National Changgeuk Company of Korea's "Trojan Women" at Theater an der Wien in Vienna, Austria / Courtesy of NTOK

European tour

Vienna is the national troupe's third destination in Europe, following London and Amsterdam.

They enjoyed sold-out performances at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, the United Kingdom as an opener of the London International Festival of Theatre 2018 on June 2 to 3 and traveled to Muziekgebouw aan't IJ in Amsterdam, Netherlands, with an invitation from the Holland Festival on June 8 to 10 where they also received enthusiastic responses.

British theater news outlet The Stage described how 'Trojan Women' combines pansori, Euripides' text and contemporary K-pop music and wrote, "This crashing together of musical styles is rather like combining Bach and Beyonce."

Kim Sung-nyo, artistic director of NCCK, said she was thrilled to present changgeuk for the first time in Vienna, the center of classical music.

Bringing changgeuk out to the world was one of Kim's pledges when she took office in 2012. She modernized the genre, which mostly used only Korean traditional stories back then.

"Changgeuk is a theater form derived from pansori, the Korean traditional singing method with over 200 years of history. The genre is still evolving and this is just the beginning. We have unlimited possibilities," Kim said. "Thanks to Ong, we bringing it to the world."

The NCCK previously performed "Madame Ong," based on a Korean folk tale, at the Theatre de la Ville in Paris, France in 2016.

"For 'Madame Ong,' French audiences were more intrigued by the plot and the way of Korean storytelling. In Trojan Women, Western audiences already know the story, so they can pay more attention to the new sound and theatrical form," Kim said.

A handful of internationally renowned theaters and performing arts festivals _ such as the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York, Theatre du Chatelet in Paris, Adelaide Festival Centre and Arts Centre Melbourne in Australia, and New Vision Arts Festival in Hong Kong _ have shown interest in bringing "Trojan Women" to their audiences.