On the Art of Opera
On the Art of Opera is a 1974 treatise by Kim Jong-il on opera. It is one of the most important North Korean works on the arts. At the time of writing, Kim was just starting his career in the North Korean cultural industry. The piece takes as its framework the "Juche" ideology and "seed" theory that Kim had previously applied to cinema. Because opera is a mixed art form, Kim finds it particularly revealing of a nation's artistic state and important for the application of his seed theory. Kim finds hierarchies between and within elements of opera, like instruments subordinate to vocals and music over dance. The main thrust of the work is to replace classical – mainly Western but also certain forms of Korean – opera with a superior Korean revolutionary opera. Kim analyzes various Western operatic forms such as aria, recitative, and leitmotif to reject them. The ideal revolutionary opera should be based on stanzaic and strophic songs, of which the highest form is a supposedly novel form of offstage chorus called "pangchang". The opera that is, according to Kim, most characteristic of his ideas is "Sea of Blood", which is to be emulated.
Q10665
Kim Jong-il
PER
Q1344
opera
Concept
Q181800
Juche
LOC
Q196077
Korean revolutionary opera
UNK
Q178122
aria
Concept
Q202534
recitative
Concept
Q221117
leitmotif
Concept
Q1756348
stanzaic
Concept
Q2707253
strophic
Concept
None
pangchang
UNK
Q2354979
Sea of Blood
MEDIA
Q97726682
On the Art of Opera
ORG
1974-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1974
DATE
author
main subject
publication date