Czech Musical `Hamlet Travels to Seoul
By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter
At the end of the last millennium Hamlet, the Shakespeare tragedy, saw an entirely new adaptation in the form of a Czech language rock opera version in that republic.
The musical written by Czech singer-composer Janek Ledecky first premiered in Prague in 1999 but has since been staged in various countries with a new English version worked by American director Robert Johanson.
The new Hamlet was first shown in Seoul last year, with a Korean translation (from the English translation of the Czech in case you are confused). Due to public demand, the show is back again with a new line up and Johanson is here to see Thursday's opening show of the production.
``It is a funny thing because so often these kinds of licensed musicals already staged here were shown already in Broadway. … But this is a kind of reverse. It's big hit now in Europe and now becoming successful in Asia. Next year, we're going to debut in America. We're taking the opposite route. But it originated in Czech anyway,'' Johanson said in an interview with The Korea Times.
He said that the Czech production ran for three years, before being created as an English-language adaptation.
The all-time classic by Shakespeare revolves around Prince Hamlet's deliberations about exacting revenge on Claudius, his stepfather, for his father's death.
But the musical has changed some scenes to put lighter moments in the story.
However, the songs exude a dark and menacing atmosphere with a heavy rock music accompaniment.
``We had to make some additions and changes to shape it better what we felt required for the English-speaking audience. … Then, the (Korean) producer here saw it and he liked it and he wanted that version in Korea,'' said Johanson.
Ironically, the English version was so popular, according to Johanson, that it is now playing in Prague alongside the Czech version.
Compared to Shakespeare's original work, he said that the production didn't really follow the psychological changes of Hamlet closely.
Instead, the musical centers more on the love theme. ``Any good musical has to have a good love story. So we wanted to expand the love story… in this two love stories, _ the love story for Hamlet and Ophelia and the love story for Claudius and Gertrude; innocent love and mature love,'' he said.
``So our function was to try to structure those love stories for the piece along with the idea of revenge tragedy of Hamlet who is avenging for his father's death. And I think they are really glued together. There are two senses of tragedy,'' he said.
``The main focus is finding out how to explore a love story through music because a love story allows for more songs, which is very similar to `Jesus Christ Superstar,' where each song moved the story forward in terms of passion of characters.''
After watching the rehearsals of the Korean production's second season, he said that sounds are more controlled and the production more understandable with a new line-up than last year's first version, whose numbers were overshadowed by the heavy rock sounds.
``Also, each new person brings another quality into the character in terms of performing skills with different colors,'' he said.
On the booming musical industry in Korea, he said that he was amazed at the performance skills and passion.
He saw local musicals, ``Radio Star'' and ``Singles.'' ``First of all, their talents are amazing. Their voices are really great and they are charming personable performers. Both `Radio Star' and `Singles' also have put their Korean lifestyles into the musical, which I think really unique and interesting,'' he said.
``Some of those kinds of musicals could eventually become international musicals even though they are translated into the languages of wherever they are going. But they are still stories about Korea. People throughout the world are becoming more acquainted with Korean stuff,'' he said.
Also, he said that he sees the Korean language as an attractive musical language. ``So many words end in a vowel, `a' or `o.' It's almost like singing Italian because there is a vowel in the end, which is very singable language. There is something pleasing about Korean. I love the rhythms in speaking Korean too. Korean has warm sound and warm language,'' he said.
Johanson is now considering making a rock opera version of ``Othello'' with Ledecky.
``Hamlet,'' the second season, will open at Theater Yong of the National Museum of Korea in Seoul Feb. 21 and will run until April 5.