FULL THE EMILE BELL (La Un-Yung) Seoul 2002 Im san, Park Nam-yeon, Kim Hak-nam

Information on the Performance

• Work Title: THE EMILE BELL or 에밀레종 or Bell of King Seongdeok  
• Composer: La Un-Yung  
• Libretto: Kim Moon-eung    Libretto Text, Libretto Index
• Venue & Opera Company: Sejong Center for the Performing Arts Grand Theater  
• Recorded: June 21, 2002
• Type: Staged Opera Live
• Singers: Im San, Lee Dae-hyung, Park Nam-yeon, Bang Sook-hee, Kim Hak-nam, Seo Yun-jin, Kim Won-kyung, Nam Wan, Kim Beom-jin, Baek Gyeong-hyeon, Joo Yeong-do, Lee Cheol-woong
• Conductor: Kim Deok-gi   
• Orchestra: Prime Orchestra  
• Chorus: Catholic Choir  
• Stage Director: Yoo Hee-moon  
• Costume Designer:   

Information about the Recording

• Published by: Tenor Imsan  
• Date Published: 2025  
• Format: Streaming
• Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
• Subtitles: nosubs  

• ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

  The Sacred Bell of Great King Seongdeok (Korean: 성덕대왕신종; Hanja: 聖德大王神鍾) is the largest extant bronze bell in Korea. It is also known as the Emille Bell (에밀레종), after a legend about its casting, and as the Bell of Bongdeoksa, where it was first housed The bell was also previously housed at Gyeongjueupseong.

  The bell is commonly known as the Emile Bell in both Korean and English. Emile, pronounced /em-ee-leh/, is an ancient Silla term for “mommy”.

  According to legend, the first bell that was cast produced no sound when it was struck. The bell was recast many times but with no success. The king that had commissioned the bell died thereafter and his young son took over the project with the help of the queen. The son carried out what his father had started but he too had little success. Later, a monk dreamed that if a child was cast into the metal, the bell would ring. The monk then took a child from the village and had her cast into the metal. When the bell was complete, the bell made the most beautiful sound when struck.
  However, some believe the legend may actually be a modern invention and that the story and name originated in the 1920s. A story that was published about the “Eomilne bell” or “Earmilne bell” (어밀네 종) may have been distorted in its retelling.[7] Recent arguments suggest that the legend about bell above may have been confused with the legend of the Emile bell.

  La,Un-Yung (1922- 93), Korean composer, dedicated his life in enlightenment of Korean musical language. He produced approximately fifteen hundred compositions, spent over forty-two years in lecture halls in universities, published a series of textbooks on music theory, and left four volumes of collection of essays and criticism.

  He advocated modernizing native. He emphasized research, discovery, and preservation of the Korean folk elements, familiar technique seen in Bartok and Kodaly, and he employed the twentieth century Western harmony to widen the possibility of the new style. As the Western music was rooting itself in Korea in the 1950’s, La foresaw and pioneered a method, which provided a direction for the coming composers in Korea.

  He composed 13 symphonies, 6 concertos, 1 orchestral work, 1 opera ,12 chamber & piano pieces, 18 art songs and 29 lyric songs, 15 solo spirituals, 4 cantatas and 202 children`s songs. As a choral conductor at his church for 32 years, La was inspired in his personal walk with God to pledge seven new hymns per month, and his continuous obedience gave birth to 1,239 hymns until one month before his death.

  Na Un-yeong’s original opera “Emile Bell” will premiere at 7:30 PM on the 21st to the 23rd at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts Grand Theater. “Emile Bell,” produced to commemorate the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup, is the last work of composer Na Un-yeong, well-known for songs such as “Moonlit Night.” It is a 4-act, 6-scene opera based on the legend of the Emile Bell from the reign of King Seongdeok of Silla. In 771 AD, King Seongdeok of Silla tried to make a bell at the risk of his country’s fortunes, but failed repeatedly. Then, a bellsmith named Geuriko receives a royal order and, following a monk’s prophecy that a bell can only be made if a person is put in it, melts his daughter in a furnace to make a bell. Tenors Im San and Lee Dae-hyung will play the role of Geuriko, sopranos Park Nam-yeon and Bang Sook-hee will play Geuriko’s wife, Mokryeon, and mezzo-sopranos Kim Hak-nam and Seo Yun-jin will play the role of the Silla princess. The production stars bassist Kim Won-kyung and Nam Wan as King Seongdeok, baritone Kim Beom-jin and Baek Gyeong-hyeon as the monk, and tenor Joo Yeong-do and Lee Cheol-woong as Garuda, Gearco’s assistant. The production features a libretto by Kim Moon-eung and direction by Yoo Hee-moon, with accompaniment by the Prime Orchestra conducted by Kim Deok-gi and the Catholic Choir. Hosted by the Music Love Movement Headquarters, the production is sponsored by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the General Affairs Office of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism

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