Exhibitions“Paulo Robersi: Photographs”: A retrospective exhibition on Italian photographer Paulo Robersi is underway at 10 CORSO COMO. Robersi is referred to as currently one of the three best fashion photographers in the world along with Steven Meisel and Peter Lindbergh. The exhibition runs through May 8 at 10 CORSO COMO SEOUL in Cheongdam-dong, southern Seoul. Admission is free. Minors are not

April 29, 2011

Open spaces host city dance events to celebrate World Dance DayThis is the official occasion for dancing all night long. International Dance Council, International Theater Institute and UNESCO designated April 29 as International Dance Day in 1982 in honor of Jean-Georges Noverre, the founder of Ballet d’Action, or narrative ballet. April 29 was his birthday. Following the goal of the day ― to inc

April 28, 2011

LOS ANGELES ― Ajay Kapur and Michael Darling have glimpsed the future. And it looks a little like “The Jetsons” meets “Spinal Tap.”In the not-too-distant future, they say, stadium concerts as we know them will be passe. In their place, humans will jam onstage with hipster robots that will perform previously unheard sounds during mind-blowing multimedia shows that are three-dimensional, interactive

April 28, 2011

(Rain)Rain posted a photo on his Twitter account of himself and English musician Sting. The Korean star attended a formal "TIME 100" party in New York. He published a message on Twitter this morning: “This man knows me even had a meal with me…. Here is Sting, the best, whom I liked the most when I was young. I’m speechless…… OMG!”In the attached picture, Rain is wearing a suit and posing with sing

April 28, 2011

Top pizza, liquor and snack houses turn to art marketingYour eyes might be dazzled before your mouth starts to water the next time you go to a pizza place.The seven-story Mr. Pizza building which opened in Bangbae-dong, southern Seoul, last week is part art gallery, packed with eye-catching artworks. Mr. Pizza, which currently tops the local pizza market, renovated the building into a kind of art

April 27, 2011

TOKYO (AFP) ― Hundreds of middle-aged Japanese flocked to a cemetery in Tokyo on Monday to bid farewell to a popular actress amid national mourning for victims of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.Yoshiko Tanaka died at 55 last Thursday after a long battle with breast cancer, ending her showbusiness career which began with an all-girl pop group, named the Candies, who took Japan’s younger genera

April 26, 2011

Seo Tai-ji’s digital music sales have quadrupled since his marriage and divorce with actor Lee Ji-ah became public last week. “Records from main music sites including Melon, Bugs, and Dosirak, show that file downloads for Seo’s music have increased tremendously, nearly fourfold compared to the past,” Gaon Chart, the country’s most authoritative music chart, said. “However, official data with every

April 26, 2011

Fashion photographers Juergen Teller and Paolo Roversi showcase portraits of cut-throat fashion industryWhat Anna Wintour’s assistants have to go through is only a fraction of the merciless battles in the uber-competitive world of fashion. Two fashion photographers who managed to survive and even receive praise for their successful campaigns are to reveal the inside of the most glamorous and compe

April 25, 2011

The Korea National Opera Company is to perform opera “Les Dialogues des Carmelites” by 20th-century French composer Francis Poulenc in Seoul in May, the first performance of the opera in Asia.First premiered in Paris and Milan in 1957, the opera is based on historical events which took place at a monastery of Carmelite nuns in Compiegne during the French Revolution.“This piece takes us to the ulti

April 24, 2011

Lee Soo-man, head producer and founder of SM Entertainment, gave a Hallyu business lecture at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business on April 19, an SM Entertainment spokesperson said. S.M Entertainment is a K-pop powerhouse, managing groups like TVXQ, Super Junior, Girls’ Generation, SHINee and F(x). Lee Soo-man speaks to Stanford MBA students at KnightManagement Center. (SM Entertainm

April 24, 2011

Pianist empathizes more with Liszt’s boldness than Chopin’s completenessPianist Paik Kun-woo, 65, is a big name in the Korean classical scene, continuing to break boundaries. He covered the complete cycle of Beethoven sonatas in a week-long recital, had a two-hour concert to perform the complete cycle of “Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jesus” of Messiaen and even held a rare four-piano concert collabo

April 21, 2011

French fans gathered in Chungdam-dong on Wednesday to meet SHINee, the Korean five-member boyband.Fifty-four French fans showed up for the fan meeting, singing “Hello,” SHINee’s hit song, when SHINee entered the room. The fans cheered when SHINee said a live SM Town concert will be held in Paris in June.(Yonhap News)The French fans were members of Korea Connection, a group of French people who lov

April 21, 2011

Seo Tae-ji(left) and Lee Ji-ah (Yonhap News)To the great shock of fans, musician Seo Tai-ji and actress Lee Ji-ah are in a divorce suit, Sports Seoul reported Thursday.Seo, the media-shy enfant terrible of Korean hard rock, is famous for leading a secretive life but the report that he is married shocked the nation via cyberspace.The report is all the more shocking because Lee created top headlines

April 21, 2011

The Seoul Metropolitan Opera Company’s first production of “Tosca,” one of the most frequently performed operas among Puccini’s works, reveals the beauty of the Italian composer’s best-known lyrical aria through the singers’ vocal ability, acting and the orchestra’s following of veteran conductor Mark Gibson.During a press rehearsal Tuesday prior to April 21-24, soprano Kim Eun-joo in the role of

April 20, 2011

Korean artists to take center stage at annual culture festivalIt is an annual festival in Edinburgh that draws hundreds of thousands of people for three weeks of music, dance, theater and opera in August. This year the world’s biggest cultural fest will seek to build a bridge between Asia and Europe by featuring artists from Korea, China and Japan, according to the organizer. The staging of the Ko

April 20, 2011

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) ― Amid a burst of fireworks and a haze of smoke, a burly showman in a white sequined suit and gold lame cape appears with a flourish. Over the next 45 minutes, he appears to make a Pyongyang bus levitate and wriggles free from a box sent crashing to the stage through a ring of fire.This is magic North Korean-style performed in a show touted as the country’s biggest ever

April 19, 2011