Spring concert thrills audience
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Guests applaud at the start of The Korea Times’Spring Music Festival at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in Seoul, Monday. Hungarian Ambassador to Korea Gabor Csaba, right, and his family were in the audience. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
Korea Times event attracts 1,500 guests including dignitaries
By Kwon Ji-youn
A standing ovation rounded off The Korea Times’ Spring Music Festival, which featured soprano Kim Soo-yeon, tenor Ryu Jung-phil and musical actress Sonya, among others.
More than 1,500 guests including the newspapers’ readers, government officials, diplomats, business leaders and cultural figures graced the Grand Theater of the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in Seoul, Monday evening, to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the nation’s oldest English daily.
The evening began with Tchaikovsky’s “Polonaise” from the opera “Eugene Onegin” by the Mostly Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Park Sang-hyun.
Soprano Kim followed with arias, including a majestic rendition of Rossini’s “Una Voce Poco Fa” from “The Barber of Seville,” while Ryu carried through his pre-performance resolution to do justice to “E Lucevan le Stelle,” from Puccini’s “Tosca.”
Musical acts with drums opened the more popular following section as the Mostly Philharmonic — without a warning — jumped into its performance of highlights from the musical “Les Miserable.” Changes in lighting gave “One Day More” dimension, and a strong timpani performance left the orchestra’s final notes lingering like the echo of distant artillery.
Kim returned to the stage with “Think of Me” from the musical “The Phantom of the Opera” and Ryu, who reintroduced himself as “not the best tenor in Korea,” came after with the all too familiar “This is the Moment” from “Jekyll and Hyde.” Ryu’s thunderous performance, with added fortitude that came from the drums, was as well-received as was his duet with Kim. Cheers erupted throughout the audience as the two brought the concert’s first half to a close with the main theme of “The Phantom of the Opera.”
“It was incredible,” Swiss Ambassador to Korea Jorg Alois Reding said.
“The repertoire was superb and the variety in genres was great,” added Hungarian Ambassador Gabor Csaba.
The Mostly Philharmonic had the audience moving to the beat as they opened the second half with a spirited “Tribute to ABBA.” Ryu then took to the stage once again with the 2005 film “The King and the Clown” original soundtrack. Ryu’s melancholy and imposing rendition of “Fate” by Lee Sun-hee was as moving as his joint performance of “A Love Until the End of Time” with musical actress Sonya. Solo acts by Sonya succeeded the duets and featured Patti Kim’s “Pledge of Love”; “I Will Always Love You” from the 1992 film “BodyGuard”; and “Fame” from the musical of the same name with which she made her musical debut in 2000.
Veteran singer Choi Sung-soo was last, but definitely not least, with performances of hit songs including “Encounters,” “A Company” and “Love Grass” receiving deafening rounds of applause.
Several diplomats were in attendance, including Chilean Ambassador to Korea Hernan Brantes, Spanish Ambassador Gonzalo Ortiz and Bolivian Ambassador Guadalupe Palomeque de Taboada. This year’s concert was sponsored by the Industrial Bank of Korea, KT&G and S-Oil.