CHAE Soo-jung | Dontaryeong' in Pansori, Heungboga

Korea’s solo historical dramas of traditional pansori have a long history through which more modern forms have inherited a precious musical heritage. Centering around the five traditional story forms of pansori: simcheongga, heungbuga, jeokbyeokga, sugungga, and chunhyungga, and new works are constantly appearing even today-this genre remains deeply loved by Koreans as an important traditional form of Korea’s music heritage. Along with AHN Sook-sun, CHAE Soo-jung is a pre-eminent singer conveying pansori’s pure artistic values on stage, while reinterpreting this inheritance in a fresh way. For example, a singer/narrator and drummer usually appear alone on the traditional stage, but in a special feature in performances lead by CHAE Soojung, a jester may appear in an unprecedented way, so that such unfamiliarity regarding pansori can bring greater emotional effects, such as more intense interest and tension. Of course such attempts make pansori more clearly understandable, and position CHAE Soo-jung in the place of the most important artist of our time. Furthermore, CHAE Soo-jung assembles a diverse range of specialized musicians in the performance group, such as players of the daegum, haegum, ajeng and percussion, in aiming to actively popularize classical Korean music. The greatest virtue of this performance group is that traditional forms are maintained while new experiments are tried out so that the general public can find the music more accessible. Under these circumstances, the solo performances of the historical dramas are no longer considered to be long or boring, and no special information needs to be prepared before the performance, for everyone may be satisfied with CHAE Soo-jung’s pansori performance group, which is full of interests, artistic expression, and human emotions. This is a group that holds us spellbound simultaneously in the charms of Korea’s traditional and world music.