Three Divas to Dazzle Fans Next Month

By Lee Hyo-won

Staff Reporter

Korea's ― and the world's ― favorite voices, are back in town. Sopranos Shin Young-ok, Sumi Jo and Hong Hei-kyung will offer classical music fans in Korea colorful concerts to warm up the winter season.

Shin Young-ok's `Concert of Love'

The New York-based soprano offers a ``Concert of Love'' filled with her favorite songs at Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, Dec. 7.

Shin Young-ok made her opera debut as Susanna in ``Le Nozze di Figaro'' in the 1989 Spoleto Festival. The Juilliard graduate went on to win the 1990 Metropolitan National Council Auditions, earning rave reviews from The New York Times. She has since been a regular on the world stage in operas, recitals and festivals, appearing with Luciano Pavarotti in New York and Jose Carreras in Seoul.

Shin is renowned not only for her classic operatic repertoires, but New Age and Korean melodies as well. For ``A Concert of Love,'' she will sing songs by Secret Garden in a duet with up and coming crossover tenor Im Tae-kyung. Also included in the program is meditative music such as Gounod's ``Ave Maria'' and Andrew Llyod Webber's ``Pie Jesu.''

She will also revive timeless favorites ``Edelweiss'' and ``Do Re Mi'' from ``The Sound of Music'' with the World Vision Korea Children's Choir.

``They asked me to sing with a children's choir and I said I'd love to, because I grew up with Little Angels (a Korean performance group for children) and I wanted to sing `The Sound of Music,' so I'll be Maria,'' Shin told The Korea Times in recent interview at a Seoul hotel.

Fans can also look forward to Shin's version of ``Habanera'' from Bizet's ``Carmen,'' the first time she will ever perform it onstage.

``It's not my repertoire, it's for mezzo-sopranos. But the director of the program said `You can do it,' and he convinced me… So I'm doing it, just for him,'' she said, explaining how it would be difficult to play a character that deviates from her soft ``butterfly-like'' ultra-feminine image.

``This one is very demanding… (Carmen) is very dramatic, yes, a femme fatale, so it will be challenging,'' she said.

Also prepared for audiences is ``The Bell Song'' from the opera ``Lakme.'' Shin said she is very nervous about singing it because the notes are even higher than that of the music in ``Lucia di Lammermoor.''

Though Shin was very humble, she has staged ``Lakme'' with the Minnesota Opera company earlier this year and wowed audiences with her melodic voice. It was a night that ``even Minnesotans found bone-chilling… loudly hailing Korean soprano Youngok Shin,'' in her ``dazzling performance,'' according to a local magazine.

Tickets cost 40,000-120,000 won. Various discounts are available. For reservations, visit www.sejongpac.or.kr or www.interpark.com. For more information, call (02) 399-1617.