Theater“La Dame au Violoncelle”: TV actress Lee Jae-eun, who started her career as a child actress, is making a comeback with a play written by French playwright Guy Foissy. Titled “La Dame au Violoncelle (The Lady of the Cello),” the drama tells the story of an unhappy, depressed woman who is accused of murdering her husband. It is said to be a story of “the quest for happiness.” The play runs from June 5-30 at You-Theater in Cheongdam-dong, southern Seoul. Tickets range from 20,000 won to 30,0

June 7, 2013

MARSEILLE, France (AP) ― A new flagship museum dedicated to Mediterranean civilization in Marseille is hoping to shake off the southern metropolis’ reputation as France’s deadliest city with a drastic cultural makeover.The Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations, which was inaugurated by French President Francois Hollande on Tuesday, is the centerpiece of Marseille’s turn as the European Capital of Culture for 2013, which aims to attract 10 million visitors to the city this year. Offi

June 6, 2013

Video artist Nam June Paik’s video installation work “Faust 8 Channel-Arts” (1991) is among the pieces by prominent Korean artists that will be put on the block this month by K-Auction, an auction company specializing in art.With an estimated price range of 480 million won-800 million won, “Faust 8 Channel-Arts” is the eighth in Paik’s 13-piece series “My Faust.” The series addresses 13 different topics of public concern, such as environmental, agricultural and educational issues.Paik was best k

June 5, 2013

Classical music lovers will be able to witness the chemistry between the 95-year-old Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and its 37-year-old music director Yannick Nzt-Sguin at the Seongnam Arts Center in Gyeonggi Province on Sunday. For the orchestra’s third concert in Korea and the first since Nzt-Sguin assumed his post, the Canadian conductor and the orchestra will perform a wide-ranging repertoire, from Dutch contemporary to classical Russian music.  Dubbed the Dutch cultural ambassador alongsi

June 3, 2013

The King Sejong Institute Foundation, a state-funded Korean language teaching institute, has released a series of government-standardized Korean language textbooks for non-Korean speakers. The “Sejong Korean” volumes 1, 2, 3 and 4 were first developed to be used at the 90 King Sejong Institutes in 40 countries around the world. The textbook is based on a standard Korean language education model developed by the National Institute of the Korean Language. The foundation is planning to release “Sej

June 3, 2013

Korea has been rather unfamiliar with German composer Wilhelm Richard Wagner (1813-1883) except for a few excerpts from works such as the “Wedding March” from “Tannhauser.” Some of his operas have never been staged here and his works have been cherished by only a rather small group of fans who proudly call themselves Wagnerian. In celebration of the 200th anniversary of Wagner’s birth, an international movement focusing on and promoting Wagner has landed in Korea. From looking inside the persona

June 2, 2013

PHILADELPHIA (AP) ― A new exhibit created by a University of Pennsylvania professor and host of a popular public television show examines how wartime propaganda has been used to motivate oppressed populations to risk their lives for homelands that considered them second-class citizens.“Black Bodies in Propaganda: The Art of the War Poster,” opens Sunday and continues until March 2 at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Lectures, film screenings and other progra

June 2, 2013

LONDON (AP) ― It’s the collection that “Cats” built.A multimillion-dollar trove of works by artists including J.M.W. Turner, Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud and Winston Churchill that were owned by poet T.S. Eliot’s widow will be sold in London later this year, Christie’s auction house announced Friday.Valerie Eliot, who died in November aged 86, bought the artworks with royalties from the hit Andrew Lloyd Webber musical “Cats,” which was based on her husband’s volume of light verse “Old Possum’s Bo

June 2, 2013

Theater“La Dame au Violoncelle”: TV actress Lee Jae-eun, who started her career as a child actress, is making a comeback with a play written by French playwright Guy Foissy. Titled “La Dame au Violoncelle (The Lady of the Cello),” the drama tells the story of an unhappy, depressed woman who is accused of murdering her husband. It is said to be a story of “the quest for happiness.” The play runs from June 5-30 at You-Theater in Cheongdam-dong, southern Seoul. Tickets range from 20,000 won to 30,0

May 31, 2013

ROME (AFP) ― The world’s oldest complete Torah scroll has been found in a university archive in Bologna, according to an Italian professor who said the text could be from the 12th century.The precious lambskin scroll had been classified by the university library as being from the 17th century and was named simply “Scroll Number Two.”But Hebrew Studies professor Mauro Perani told AFP on Wednesday he noticed that the text did not conform to key changes in Torah writing brought about starting from

May 30, 2013

Just when the Wild Wild West of online world seemed to have been somewhat tamed with the regulation of Webhard and peer-to-peer services, yet another type of file-sharing service has emerged as a major headache for the content industry. Armed with anonymity and state-of-the-art technologies, the mushrooming torrent file-sharing service is dealing a huge blow to the local content industry, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said Thursday. According to a team of special investigators with

May 30, 2013

Pianist Paik Kun-woo should be credited for breaking the prejudice that classical music is the domain of Western musicians.Long before Kim Sun-wook, Son Yeol-eum, Cho Seong-jin and others swept international competitions and recorded internationally acclaimed albums, Paik proved that Asians, could be just as capable of delivering the universal sentiment of Beethoven, Liszt and others. Moreover, he paved the way for fellow Koreans to perform at top-notch concert halls by selling out concerts. Hav

May 28, 2013

More people visited Gyeongbokgung Palace during the five-day night viewing period last week than in any previous year since the event was launched in 2010. But its popularity is a mixed blessing. It not only caused much inconvenience to visitors, but raised some serious public safety issues as well as concerns about how to preserve the cultural heritage site while still keeping it open to large crowds. On Sunday evening during the final hours of the Gyeongbokgung Palace night viewing, a large cr

May 27, 2013

From Irish ethnic tunes to Jamaican ska, world music will fill the air of the Hanbit Park outdoor stage in central Seoul June 1-2 as part of “KF Festival 2013 ― The Music of the World.” The festival, hosted by the Korea Foundation, aims to bridge Korea and the world and will focus on showcasing all kinds of music and performances on the stage. The Banana Choir, composed of children from an Indian slum, will open the event on Saturday evening. Their performance is part of a fund-raising project t

May 27, 2013

JERUSALEM (AP) ― Parts of the Dead Sea Scrolls are up for sale ― in tiny pieces. Nearly 70 years after the discovery of the world’s oldest biblical manuscripts, the Palestinian family who originally sold them to scholars and institutions is now quietly marketing the leftovers ― fragments the family says it has kept in a Swiss safe deposit box all these years.Most of these scraps are barely postage-stamp-sized, and some are blank. But in the last few years, evangelical Christian collectors and in

May 26, 2013

Dance fans will have a rare opportunity to see masters of eight different forms of Korean traditional dance performing on the same nights at the same venue this week. “Palmujeon,” organized by the Korea Cultural Heritage Foundation, will feature eight female dance masters, each with her own unique style specializing in different genres of traditional dance. The 2011 dance event hosted by the foundation, “Nammuyeoljeon,” featured only male dancers. During the two-hour event slated for May 30-31,

May 26, 2013

The Gamcheon area of Busan used to be somewhere people would usually avoid. Seen as a ghetto, the place held little charm. But in 2009 things started to change. Artists and activists gathered at this little-known place, painted the walls and installed art here, there and everywhere. Annual projects such as “MiroMiro Alley” and “Sanbok Road Renaissance” turned the rough grey walls pink, blue, yellow and other pastel shades, while stairways and outdated facilities were given a facelift. At street

May 24, 2013

Theater“A Tale of Two Cities”: “A Tale of Two Cities,” a musical based on the novel of the same title by Charles Dickens, is being restaged in Seoul after its first Seoul run last year. The piece is set against the conflicts between the rebels and aristocracy during the French revolution and its parallel world in 18th Century London. It tells the story of Sydney Carton, a shrewd young English lawyer who develops a strong, unrequited love for Lucie Manette, a young loving French woman who grew up

May 24, 2013