Lear review

The music for this contemporary form of Korean opera, known as Changgeuk, is a skilful blend of traditional Pansori folk instruments, big, bold choruses and ballads with piano and strings that wouldn’t sound out of place in a West End musical. The score is written by music director and Pansori singer Han Seung-seok and composer and K-Pop producer Jung Jae-il, who worked on Squid Game and the Oscar-winning Parasite. The unseen 13-strong ensemble is a vital part of the production, supplying incidental music, sound effects and continuo.

Pansori-style voice production is extraordinary – it features florid decoration and ululation, overtones giving a cavernous warmth and, at full throttle, it expresses unbridled pain and fury outside the expressive range of most Western opera singers. The small, agile chorus sings and moves in unison, and the few moments of choreographed dance – a cheeky little pas de deux by the two evil sisters, for example – and the wonderful physical comedy of the Fool add humour to the storytelling.

Stripped of subplots, the universal theme of human frailty is emphasised: the faithful Cordelia (Min Eun-Kyung) and innocent Edgar (Lee Kwang-bok) are pitted against the deliciously villainous Edmund (Kim Su-in) and evil sisters Goneril (Yi So Yeon) and Regan (Wang Yun-jeong). In a harrowing performance, Lear, sung by Pansori idol Kim Jun-su, transforms from a dignified king to a howling, flailing figure finally broken. One of the most unforgettable images of the evening is a spotlit Lear cradling Cordelia’s lifeless body, while the silhouettes of his bedraggled army file across the stage behind him.