Lee Ja-ram brings pansori back to its roots by modernizing

"Here we are now, in the snowy fields of Russia, where it is minus 28 degrees Celsius." With just this one line from Korea’s leading pansori (Korean narrative music) performer Lee Ja-ram, the audience suddenly found themselves transported to the harsh Russian winter, standing upon a vast snowy plain. She repeatedly sang out "shooong," mimicking the sound of wind with her mouth while waving her fan, and evoking the sound of a horse with "hiiing" ( "neigh" in English) as she used both hands to mimic a horse walking across a snowfield. Her latest work, "Snow, Snow, Snow," staged at LG Arts Center from April 7 to 13, marked her long-awaited return to the pansori stage with a new creation — her first original piece in five years. A pansori reinterpretation of Leo Tolstoy’s short story "Master and Man," the production tells the story of merchant Vasily and peasant worker Nikita, who set out to buy a forest during Russia’s brutal winter and lose their way in a snowstorm using pansori, traditionally performed by a solo singer playing all the characters, accompanied only by a drummer. ThWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times