North Korean opera stars are giving concerts to encourage farmers to finish this year’s harvest

Adam Schrader
·2 min read
8
UPI
North Korean artists belonging to the 'Sea of Blood Opera Troupe' perform a Chinese classic opera known as 'Butterfly Lovers' in eastern China in January 2012. Opera singers and artists in North Korea are giving daily concerts at farms in the western part of the country to “encourage” farmers to finish this year’s harvest. File Photo by Wu Hong/EPA

Sept. 24 (UPI) -- Opera singers and artists in North Korea are giving daily concerts at farms in the western part of the country to "encourage" farmers to finish this year's harvest.

The "art squad," composed of musicians and artists from Pyongyang, are giving a performance every day at farms near the city of Nampho, according to a news release from North Korea's Central News Agency.

The groups participating include the Phibada Opera Troupe, the National Folk Art Troupe, the National Theatrical Troupe and the National Acrobatic Troupe.

North Korea has a long tradition of opera that glorifies nationalism and the ideology of the country that began with the 1971 hit Sea of Blood, a tale about a woman and her family that suffers at the hands of the Japanese during the occupation of Korea in the 1930s.

The Phibada Opera Troupe, founded in 1946, is the group that created Sea of Blood, a show so revered in North Korea that the country's late leader Kim Jong-Il praised it in his treatise On The Art Of Opera. His father, the founder of North Korea Kim Il-Sung, was credited as the librettist of the opera.

"Ours is a new historical era when the masses of the people have emerged as the masters of their destiny and of the world and are making history and shaping their own destiny. This period requires a new type of opera to serve the masses," Kim Jong-Il wrote.

"Only opera art which resolutely champions the interests of the revolution and implements the party's lines can be loved by the people and become a powerful weapon for encouraging them in the revolution and construction."

North Korean leaders said that the solo "When We Walk along the Road between Fields," performed by a woman, and other songs would be performed.

The concerts will be given at the Aewon Farm under the Nampho Municipal Rural Economy Committee and the Ryongwol Farm in Onchon County as well as at the Taeo and Tokwon farms in Unjon County and other farms in North Phyongan Province.

"Art squad members of working people's organizations conduct on-the-spot motivational art performances in the rural areas of South Phyongan, North and South Hwanghae provinces," the news release reads.

Officials in Pyongyang sent loudspeaker cars to encourage the farmers "in the breadbasket of the country."