Chon Wolson hopes opera will bridge South Korea-Japan ties

[yuiyoshida]

Soprano Chon Wolson shows the costume she will wear in “The Last Queen.”


By Taku Iwaki / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff WriterTo celebrate the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic ties between Japan and South Korea, soprano Chon Wolson, a second-generation South Korean national living in Japan, will star in a new opera titled “The Last Queen.”

The opera will depict the volatile life of Princess Masako (1901-1989), a member of the Japanese Imperial family who married a prince of the Korean dynasty.

Princess Masako, who hailed from the Nashimoto imperial family, married Lee Eun of the Korean dynasty. Though it was a marriage of expediency, the couple nurtured a genuine love. However, the two lost their nationality following Japan’s defeat in World War II.

After her husband’s death, Masako focused her efforts on welfare activities for physically disabled Korean children and began to be called the “Omoni (mother) of South Korea.”

http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0002417314

[longship]

1. As a huge opera fan, this looks great!

And the resolving of old animosities has got to be a great goal in itself. But to do it with music is just so right.

That is something Mozart would have done. After all, he brought a Beaumarchais play to Vienna at a time when the emperor's sister was queen in Paris. We all know how that ended. Yes, this was just before the French Revolution. Le Nozze di Figaro is my favorite opus because of its cultural context.

I will look this one up to better understand its cultural context.

Opera not only sounds good, it can inform.

A hearty R&K