A Korean music drama with 300 years’ Pansori history, Changgeuk
In 1962, the National Changgeuk Company of Korea, an organization specializing in changgeuk, was founded with the objective of reviving the beauty and spirit of Korean songs. The music theater of changgeuk is a unique Korean art form that has been around for over a century. Its distinctive artistic device and philosophy match those of any Western opera.
For over 40 years, the National Changgeuk Company of Korea has continuously pursued preservation, standardization and popularization of traditional changgeuk, staging original contemporary changgeuk performances. To do so, the company arranged the scripts for the five pansoris (traditional Korean narrative songs: Chunhyangga, Simcheongga, Sugungga, Heungboga, Jeokbyeokga) and has performed them in full versions since 1998. The scripts were also translated and published in English, French, and Japanese to make changgeuk known to the world as a traditional performing art form of Korea.

Major Repertoires of The National Changgeuk Company
 

The 15 or 16-Year-Old Virgin Maid

Names with hardy passion..., Meeting of Shimcheongjeon and Chunhyangjeon | Several parts of and , classic repertoires, are combined to make a new story. The funeral scene of Mrs. Kwak in < SimCheong> is used to maximize tragic beauty, while the wedding ceremony of Chunhyang and Lee Mongryong in is used to reinterpret Korean esthetics of humor in this play. This is the signature piece of the series . Modern people today can rediscover the meaning of ‘love’ and ‘filial piety,’ universal values in human history through this story.

 

 

Romeo and Juliet

Shakespeare adapted changgeuk story, a Korean music theater | A new music theater series Romeo and Juliet is the first adapted Changgeuk story. The company incorporates a Korean setting into the play. Instead of Romeo from the Montagues and Juliet from the Capulets in Verona, it transformed the original into the story of Juri, the daughter of Bullip Choi from a noble family in Namwon, Cheolla Province and Romyo, a son of Taegyu Mun from another noble family in Hamyang, Gyeongsang Province. The story takes place near Palyangchi, a hill between Cheolla and Gyungsang Provinces. The script, incorporating the beauty of the original work, was written by Sungwhan Park, who wrote the script for the National Brand Performance, . Suksun Ahn, Korea’s 23rd intangible cultural heritage, composed the Sori and gave birth to a cheerful but heartbreaking music theater.