• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.14 no.12
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• pp.639-654
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• 2014

What is noticeable in Changgeuk Madame Ong is that for "narrativization," a main character is replaced with Madame Ong and her mother and a reinvented story as a result thereof is the female liberation from oppression. The director sought for the completeness of the narrative with a plot line created (i) by daringly deleting the latter half (episode relating to Gangsoe's death), which was a persistent problem unsolved both in the original and its derivative contents, (ii) by diluting Gangsoe's patriarchal authority and thereby creating the ending of endless love and the fruition of love, and (iii) by severing the link between Madame Ong's doomed fate of widowhood and Gangsoe's doomed fate of death by the violation of a taboo (the key factors of the original story) and at the same time, thereby inserting the doomed fate of death by Jowang (god of fire), declaring a war against jangseung (Korean traditional totem pole), the aesthetic structure representing "fictionization," and enabling a female character to gain love, fame and life through free will and spirit of resistance. The director achieved a remarkable success in terms of composition by (i) taping into a variety of genres of music, (ii) by maximizing the effect of Madame Ong's solo, (iii) by strengthening the "uniqueness of each part" through chorus, (iv) by creating a dramatic atmosphere for the change of scene, (v) by applying a dual variation of tension (resistance theme) and relaxation (freedom theme), etc.

• (The) Research of the performance art and culture
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• no.33
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• pp.59-95
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• 2016

The purpose of this study was to examine the text and musical characteristic of , a changgeuk (a Korean traditional opera), by the National Theater of Korea, which was performed overseas with the title of and recognized its artistic values home and abroad alike, focusing on the process of its rebirth from a lost pansori. A changgeuk was dramatized from a lost pansori into a Korean traditional opera. In the process of rebirth of , the content of latter half, which is the performance of a funeral service for the deceased Byeongangsoe, was deleted, and the contents of Ongnyeo's fight against jangseungs in order to take back Byeongangsoe was newly inserted, thus creating textual changes. In addition, as the title presents, Ongnyeo is no longer a conventional lewd woman, but a subjective and independent female who is fighting against fate, different from its original perspective in which the leading character is Byeongangsoe. All the sounds of a changgeuk were made by the creative technique of traditional Korean songs through various attempts, such as inserting chords between performers in order to present most appropriate songs for the opera, namely proper sounds for the hidden side of the opera. In addition, according to the change of mind of performers or characters, the tone and vocal sound of the song were different. In particular, a changgeuk attempted a variety of techniques in the accompaniment of music, and used many sound buks or diverse genres such as popular music, waltz, classic and folk songs of every province, thus presenting challenging attempts. These attempts made the opera more abundant and helped it to be expressed realistically and dramatically. As above, the contents of a changgeuk were borrowed from classical narrations, but its musical aspects got off the technique of traditional changgeuk, thus attempting various changes and techniques. In this vein, it presented a novel modality of changgeuk equiping with the characteristic of 'reviewing the old and learning the new,' thus proposing the directivity and possibility of changgeuk in the present society.