Lifestyle - The Korea Times

Classical Concerts, Big Tickets, Museums, Dance, Pop&Jazz. Plays & Musicals

Classical Concerts Northern Sinfonia with Lim Dong-hyek Seoul Arts Center March 29 The Northern Sinfonia, led by Thomas Zehetmair, will visit Korea to hold a concert for local fans. They will perform various works by Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms. Pianist Lim Dong-hyek will appear as a soloist. Tickets cost from 30,000 won to 150,000 won. For more information, visit ticket.interpark.com or call (02) 751-9630. Located near exits 4 and 5 of Nambu Bus Terminal on subway line 3. Les Petits Chanteurs de Saint-Marc Sejong Center for the Performing Arts April 23 Les Petits Chanteurs de Saint-Marc visits Korea. This choir will sing a varied repertoire, from Gregorian chants to modern popular music. Tickets cost from 33,000 won to 88,000 won. For more information, visit ticket.interpark.com or call (02) 523-5391. Located near exit 8 of Gwanghwamun Station on subway line 5. Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra's Hope Concert Sejong Center for the Performing Arts March 1 Maestro conductor Chung Myung-whun will lead the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra in Borodim's ``Polovtsian Danc

Feb 26, 2009

Distinctive Dance Works to Go on Stage in March

By Han Sang-hee Staff Reporter March will be a month of unique dance performances, as a French movie star and Russian ballet troupe take the stage for local fans. Actress Juliette Binoche and the Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg will offer dance lovers interesting works, complete with their own distinctive colors and movements. The Russian troupe, led by Boris Eifman, is bringing audiences the dramatic life of Anna Karenina March 27-29. Already made into dance performances, theatrical plays and movies starring famous actresses such as Vivien Leigh and Sophie Marceau, the passionate, tragic love story of Anna and her lover, Vronsky, will be staged at the LG Arts Center. Anna is married to a high official and after a few years living as an aristocrat, she discovers herself alone and bored. She coincidently meets a young man, Vronsky, at a party, and the two fall in love, running away from all the aristocracy and responsibilities together, but not to Anna's enduring happiness. Her story will be presented by one of the world's most dramatic choreographers, Eifman, and

Feb 25, 2009

KoreaToday National Contemporary Art Museum Gets Seoul Venue

By Lee Hyo-won Staff Reporter Seoul is incontestably the hub of South Korea for almost all sectors including the arts. While the capital houses the National Museum of Art in Deoksu Palace, the National Museum of Contemporary Art is located in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province. It only seems natural that the government decided to build a main annex in Seoul for exhibitions and cultural activities. The Gwacheon museum will mostly likely function as a center for storage, research and education, said the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in a press release. Paris has its train station-turned-Musee D'Orsay and London boasts the factory-turned-Tate Modern. By 2012, Seoul will transform the Defense Security Command (DSC) in Jongno into a contemporary art museum complex. This answers those who have been long campaigning for a contemporary art museum in Seoul, an idea proposed in 1995. The renovation will be in sync with that of Gyeongbok Palace. The DSC, located in the center of Samcheong-dong, had seemed out of place in the artsy neighborhood lined with art galleries. Three yea

Feb 25, 2009

March Offers Special Opera Feast

By Lee Hyo-won Staff Reporter March will be a special treat for local opera fans, with three must-see productions coming to the stage. Seoul Arts Center's Opera Theater makes its grand reopening March 6-14 with a star-studded production of ``Le Nozze di Figaro.'' The National Opera restages ``The Magic Flute,'' March 10-15 and Italy's Trieste Verdi Theater performs for the first time in Korea with ``Madame Butterfly,'' March 12-15. `Le Nozze di Figaro' Mozart's ``Le Nozze di Figaro'' will grace the reopening of Seoul Arts Center's Opera Theater. Even though the comic opera was recently staged by the National Opera, operagoers can expect something different in the upcoming rendition by celebrated and uncompromising Scottish director David McVicar. The Royal Opera House production, staged in 2006 for Mozart's 250th birthday and a recording of which was chosen as the Best DVD of the Year by Deutsche Grammophon, will be revived here under the direction of Justin Way. Top singers will appear, including internationally renowned soprano Shin Young-ok in the role of Susann

Feb 22, 2009

Hong Offers New Perspective in Sidescape

By Cathy Rose A. Garcia Staff Reporter As the only painter invited to participate in last year's SITE Santa Fe Biennale in New Mexico in the United States, Hong Soun attracted significant attention for his delicate paintings. ``Artists were seen like celebrities there. At the Biennale, I was the only painter, which was big news. People actually asked to take pictures with me. This is very different from the way I'm treated in Korea. Here, people hardly recognize me on the street,'' Hong told The Korea Times at Ssazmie Space, in Changjeong-dong, Mapo. ``Sidescape,'' his solo exhibition at Ssamzie Space, includes works he presented during the biennale, as well as new ones. The Santa Fe Biennale, the only international biennale in the United States, focused on showing experimental art organizations and selected artists in a bid to emphasize the art community's spirit. Hong's oil paintings are mainly landscapes, but not of the typical scenic variety. With its muted tones, the paintings appear gently out-of-focus and incomplete, inspired by images he selected from thousand

Feb 20, 2009

Clubs, Traditional Events & Art Exhibitions

Concerts, Museums & Theater Classical Concerts, Big Tickets, Museums, Dance, Pop & Jazz and Plays & Musicals Clubs, Traditional Events & Art Exhibitions Clubs, Traditional Events, Art Exhibitions, Activities for Children and Sports Games Clubs The Circle Cheongdam-dong Located in the upscale Cheongdam-dong neighborhood, it's notorious for turning you down unless you're dressed chic and sleek. Faithful to its name, it has a round revolving floor _ looking for your ``lost'' table gives clubbers the perfect excuse to sit down with a sexy stranger. Located on Dosan-daero near Hak-dong intersection. Call (02) 546-5933 or visit www.thecircle.co.kr. Club Answer Cheongdam-dong This might be the answer to your nightlife. It offers an intimate partying environment with groovy electronic music by star DJs. You can reserve tables and those on the second floor provide an open view of the dance floor. Or mingling with the hot bartenders at the open bar might be a fine alternative. Located in Cheongdam-dong across the street from Prima Hotel, near the entrance toi Yeongdong-da

Feb 19, 2009

Concerts, Museums & Theater

Classical Concerts `The Magic Flute' LG Art Center March 10-15 The Korean National Opera's small but powerful production of Mozart's beloved opera ``The Magic Flute" will be restaged, conducted by Johannes Stert and directed by Michael Ashman. Call (02) 586-5282. Located near exit 7 of Yeoksam Station on subway line 2. Guillaume Tardif Recital Guro Arts Valley March 6 Violinist Guillaume Tardif will visit Korea to offer a recital for local fans, performing the works of Bach, Mahler, Paganini and Beethoven. Tickets cost from 15,000 won to 20,000 won. For more information, visit ticket.interpark.com or call (02) 2029-1736. Located near exit 4 of Daerim Station on subway line 2. Roby Lakatos Ensemble Seoul Arts Center March 29 Hungarian gypsy musician Roby Lakatos and the Roby Lakatos Ensemble will host a concert here after a seven-year absence. They will perform the works of Suha Balogh Jozsef, Vittirio Monti, and Michel Legrand. Tickets cost from 40,000 won to 100,000 won. For more information, visit www.vincero.co.kr or call (02) 599-5743. Located near exits 4

Feb 19, 2009

Adapted Island Blasts Control of Freedom

By Chung Ah-young Staff Reporter ``The Island,'' written by Athol Fugard, John Kani and Winston Ntshona in 1974, told the true story of apartheid-era race relations in a prison on South Africa's notorious Robben Island. Now, the drama's 2009 version, adapted by actor-turned-director Lim Chul-hyung and musical stars Cho Jung-seok and Yang Jun-mo, is set in the near future, in which freedom of assembly and speech are strictly suppressed and two inmates' lives are controlled in an igloo-shaped prison. Against the backdrop of the futuristic stage designs, such as the actors' metallic costumes and the simple but the igloo-shaped cell, the two inmates ― John, played by Cho, and Winston by Yang ― are constantly monitored by cameras. The play first appeared on stage in Korea in 1977, directed by Yun Ho-jin under the day's iron-fisted rule, but this year's rendition was adapted to present needs to better touch the hearts of 21st century audiences. Two men are serving life sentences. Winston says he's in jail solely because he went to a street where a protest was taking place to

Feb 18, 2009

Online Photo Archive of Asian Cultures Launched

By Cathy Rose A. Garcia Staff Reporter The diversity of life and culture in Asia is just a click away, with a free online photography database showcasing different Asian lifestyles having just been unveiled. The UNESCO Asia Pacific Center of Education for International Understanding (APCEIU), Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and Office for Hub City of Asian Culture have worked together to launch the Photo Archive of Asian Cultures. ``With increased diversity stemming from international marriages and migrant labor, there is an increasing necessity in Korea to better understand Asian cultures and lifestyles. The Photo Archive of Asian Cultures shows that it can improve people's understanding of Asian cultures and atmosphere with just a single photograph. Unlike written and spoken means of expression, photographs can exclude subjective prejudices and show objects and phenomena as they are," APCEIU said, in a statement. The photo archives can be found at the Web sites http://photo.unescoapceiu.org and www.cct.go.kr/photo in Korean and English. More than 7,000

Feb 17, 2009

Snowman Coming to Town

By Chung Ah-young Staff Reporter ``The Snowman,'' a stage show based on the best-selling children's book by English author Raymond Briggs published in 1978, is finally coming to town for the first time. The show is set to dazzle Korean fans that have seen the snowman only in the book and animation. The performance will be staged at the Opera House of Seoul Arts Center in southern Seoul, from March 28 to April 12. Since the renowned tale was made into a stage version in 1993, it has topped the British box office among year-end performances for 16 year olds. The show is based on the tale of a boy who builds a snowman that comes to life at night, and tells the story of a journey they take together. The show ends after returning from the journey and the sun has risen the next morning and the boy wakes up to find the snowman has melted. It is not certain whether the boy's nighttime journey with the snowman was a dream or not but the boy finds that he still has the scarf given him by Father Christmas during the journey. The story was made into a 26-minute animated movi