The National Theater of Korea will launch its first-ever World Traditional Opera Festival next month, bringing together heritage-based musical theater from Korea, China, and Japan. The festival, running from September 3-28 in Seoul, aims to showcase contemporary interpretations of traditional performing arts from across East Asia.
The festival centers on changgeuk, a relatively young performing arts genre in Korea that serves as the country's equivalent to opera. Changgeuk evolved from pansori, a traditional form of narrative singing that UNESCO has recognized as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. While the word "chang" refers to pansori singing, "geuk" means drama in Korean. Unlike traditional pansori, where a single singer performs an entire story accompanied only by a drummer called a gosu, changgeuk assigns different roles to multiple singers, creating full-scale theatrical productions.
"This festival marks the full launch of our 2025-2026 season slogan, 'Together, Further,'" said National Theater CEO Park In-gun at a press conference on Thursday. "We will strive to grow it into a festival that captures global attention." Yu Eun-seon, artistic director of the National Changgeuk Company and head of the festival's organizing committee, added, "We want this to become another signature festival of the National Theater alongside Yeowoorak. At its core, it will be a platform for exploring the present and future of global musical theater."
With changgeuk experiencing a surge in popularity in recent years, the inaugural festival will present nine productions under the theme "Focusing on the East." The lineup includes three international guest works, two invited Korean productions, and four original works by the National Theater of Korea. The festival opens with "Pansori Theater Shim Cheong" (September 3-6), a bold reinterpretation of the classic pansori tale about a devoted daughter, directed by acclaimed Europe-based opera director Yona Kim. This co-production with the Jeonju International Sori Festival premiered earlier this month in Jeonju.
Other National Theater productions include "Through Tender Eyes" (September 4-7), a barrier-free performance told through the perspective of a nameless dog, and "Mr. Rabbit's Journey to the Underwater Palace" (September 25-26), a concert-style adaptation of the pansori "Sugung-ga." The festival will conclude with the 2025 Changgeuk Playwright Project Showcase (September 27-28), which presents new script development initiatives.
The international highlights from China and Japan demonstrate how traditional arts remain vibrant through contemporary reinterpretations. The Hong Kong Arts Festival's 2023 production "Love in the Bamboo Grove" (September 12-13) introduces audiences to Cantonese opera, a major form of Chinese opera originating in Guangdong Province and performed in the Cantonese language. This 200-minute work, written by award-winning screenwriter Raymond To Kwok-wai and performed by rising stars of Cantonese opera, traces the lives of descendants of the Seven Sages, who retreated from political turmoil in pursuit of a hedonistic lifestyle. Set in the late Wei and early Jin dynasties, the production explores different forms of love through both emotionally charged and action-packed scenes, according to opera performer Lam Tin-yau.
From Japan, the Nogaku troupe Noh Fu Ka will present two productions that showcase the country's highly stylized classical theater. "Manghanga" (September 17-18) represents a collaboration with Korean nongak percussion, while "Noh and Kyogen" (September 19-20) offers audiences a glimpse into Japan's traditional stage arts. Nogaku, alongside kabuki, represents Japan's traditional performing arts, combining masked drama (noh) with comedic interludes (kyogen).
"Manghanga," a newly written noh play, draws inspiration from a 1993 interview with the wife of a Korean man who died while forcibly conscripted to work in a Japanese coal mine during Japan's colonial rule of Korea in the first half of the 20th century. The production depicts the widow's grief as she dances quietly under the moonlight. To stage the work with authenticity, the troupe has brought four antique noh masks from Japan, each over 600 years old. Director Shimizu Kanji, who also plays the grieving wife, acknowledged the emotional weight of presenting such a story in Korea. "I am very nervous about how this story will be received in Korea," he said. "But forced labor remains unresolved in reality, which is why we feel compelled to address it onstage."
Shimizu explained that Korean nongak percussion was incorporated after reading a line in the script that states, "When the wife longs for her husband, the sound of drums is heard from afar." He wanted that sound to reflect traditional Korean music, creating a meaningful cultural bridge between the two countries.
The festival also features productions by private Korean companies that demonstrate the diversity of contemporary traditional arts. Pansori Azit Nohlaebox will present "Tale of Two Goddesses" (September 6-7), a one-person play based on Jeju shamanic myth that blends pansori with folk songs and jazz elements. Creative Team Taroo will stage "The Tale of Jeong Su-jeong," drawn from an anonymous late-Joseon-era novel that sheds new light on the complex inner life of a pioneering female hero.
The World Traditional Opera Festival represents a significant step in the National Theater of Korea's mission to promote traditional performing arts while fostering international cultural exchange. By bringing together artists and productions from Korea, China, and Japan, the festival creates opportunities for audiences to experience the rich diversity of East Asian musical theater traditions and their contemporary evolution.
