Tell O' The Forest!

Tell O' The Forest! (Korean: 밀림아 이야기하라; lit. Jungle, Oh, Speak! Hurrah!; also translated Speak, O Forest; Tell, O Forest; Speak, Forest!)[1][2][3] is a North Korean revolutionary genre theatrical performance.[4][5] First performed in 1972, it is credited to Kim Jong-il.[6][7][8]

Tell O' The Forest!
Korean revolutionary opera by Kim Jong-il
Native title
밀림아 이야기하라
LibrettistKim Jong-il
LanguageKorean
Premiere
1972
Tell O' The Forest!
Chosŏn'gŭl
Hancha
密林아이야기下라
Revised Romanizationmillim a iyagi hara
McCune–Reischauermillim a iyagi-hara

The performance is considered one of the "Five Great Revolutionary Operas",[9] a group of classical, revolution-themed opera repertoires well received within North Korea.[10][11][12][13][14]

Plot

Choe Byong-hung is a Korean patriot who pretends to serve the Japanese during the occupation. He suffers the anger of the people of his village, who find his deception too convincing. His daughter commits suicide due to the shame of being "daughter of the puppet village head", after which Choe lures the Japanese forces into a trap in which he too perishes.

Reception

Tell O' The Forest was criticized by Kim Jong-il in On the Art of Opera for having the hero die before witnessing the moment of victory, as well as sticking to the "outmoded pattern" of using exclusively song, not a mixture of song and speech.[15]

The 2019 Laibach song "Honourable, Dead or Alive, When Following the Revolutionary Road" is a re-interpretation of an aria from Tell O' The Forest! It was "prepared for the 2015 Liberation Day concert in Ponghwa Theatre in Pyongyang, but deemed too 'confusing' by the North Korean hosts and struck from the concert repertoire."[16]

See also

References
  1. "Pyongyang, North Korea". Offbeat Japan.
  2. Kim, Chong-il (March 19, 1997). "Selected Works: 1987-1989". Foreign Languages Publishing House – via Google Books.
  3. "Daily Report: East Asia". The Service. March 17, 1992 – via Google Books.
  4. "The 5 Classic North Korean Revolutionary Operas". February 21, 2020.
  5. "North Korea's revolutionary operas". North Korean Economy Watch.
  6. Buzo, Adrian (September 13, 2016). The Making of Modern Korea. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781317422785 – via Google Books.
  7. Liu, Siyuan (February 5, 2016). Routledge Handbook of Asian Theatre. Routledge. ISBN 9781317278863 – via Google Books.
  8. Marr, Henry (December 14, 2018). North Korea. Bradt Travel Guides. ISBN 9781784770945 – via Google Books.
  9. Korea), Institute for Unification Education, Ministry of Unification (South (January 30, 2015). "Understanding North Korea: Totalitarian dictatorship, Highly centralized economies, Grand Socialist Family". 길잡이미디어 – via Google Books.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. "North Korea through Cinema". December 5, 2016.
  11. "A Dummy's Guide to the North Korean Revolutionary Opera - Koryo Tours". koryogroup.com.
  12. 가극 작품 Archived 2005-12-01 at the Wayback Machine – NK Chosun
  13. 전영선 (2004년 5월 5일). 〈제7부 북한의 가극 - 제1장 피바다식 혁명가극의 개념〉, 《북한의 문학과 예술》. 서울: 역락. ISBN 89-5556-292-6
  14. 2008年03月26日, 杭州大剧院春季演出季－朝鲜歌剧《卖花姑娘》 Archived 2017-09-24 at the Wayback Machine – 浙江在线新闻网
  15. Kim, Jong-il (2001). On the Art of Opera. University Press of the Pacific.
  16. "MUTE - Laibach - Party Songs EP". 29 October 2019.
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