Chinese Blockbuster Musical Coming to Seoul Next Year
By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter
The Chinese blockbuster musical ``Butterflies'' is coming to town next year, and will be staged at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts from March 21 to 29.
``Butterflies'' is the first super-scaled modern-style musical produced in China. It is a fantasy and modern interpretation of one of the best-known Chinese folktales, the beautiful but tragic love story ``Butterfly Lovers.'' The story revolves around Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, a young couple who are separated by Zhu's arranged marriage. The legend is regarded as the Chinese equivalent to ``Romeo and Juliet.''
The musical is set in World Terminus. Young maiden Zhu is getting married but an uninvited guest intrudes. He claims to be Liang Shanbo and wants to take her away. Then, everything becomes a total mess. Someone gets drunk, someone goes crazy, someone gets cursed, and someone dies. Liang misses Zhu so much that he dies of a broken heart. This all happens on the eve of Zhu's wedding. After receiving the news of Liang's death, Zhu commits suicide on the day of her wedding.
It is said that the couple meets again in the spirit world and change into two free butterflies.
The musical premiered in Beijing in 2007 and since then, has toured six cities including Harbin and Shanghai.
The work was first staged in Korea as the closing performance of the second Daegu International Musical Festival, which was held in July.
The musical has taken three years and 40 million yuan, or more than $5 million, to complete. In order to achieve international standards, Chinese producer Li Dun invited top experts from all over the world to train the actors and actresses who stood out from thousands of candidates. They underwent two years of intensive training, according to the NDPK, the Korean musical production company.
International artists and staff from China, Canada and England participated in the production including renowned Chinese producer Li Dun and musical director and composer San Bao, Canadian director Gilles Maheu known for ``Notre Dame de Paris'' and ``Don Juan,'' light designer Alain Lortie, video artist Olivier Goulet and British art director Wayne Fowkes.
The show breaks away from the traditional style of script writing. Creation and modification were made in a sophisticated way for the accurate industrialized production.
To revive the originality of the musical in Seoul, 70 staff and the Harbin Orchestra will come to Korea.
The NDPK, along with Songlei Culture & Media Communications, Chinese musical production company, will host the musical in Seoul to mark the 17th anniversary of Korea-China relations next year.
Producer Li Dun said that he was deeply impressed by the response from the Korean audience in Daegu in July and the development of the Korean musical market industry.
The musical, which has been revised for three months for the overseas performances, will be staged in Seoul after a try-out period from Oct. 11 to 14 in a Beijing theater.