POTO Busan review (centered on actors).
(*I wrote longer reviews in Korean on another SNS before. **It's a long review with bad English grammar, so if you're busy, I recommend you to read only keywords.)
0. I saw POTO Busan performances for the first time on April 30(Both matinรฉe and evening performances). I had saw POTO World tour and London (+ JOJ concert in Korea๐) before and (as you all know) the POTO Korea set was the original version, not the world tour version or the London reopening version. The costumes were similar to the recent London costumes, but have more beads except Star Princess costume. The directing and choreography(except Masquerade) were Broadway versions before COVID.
I finished brief introduction, so I'll talk about actors now. (I know that POTO Korea video bootlegs exist, but most of them were recorded in very early days including previews. And some actors(particularly ์กฐ์น์ฐ and ์ก์ํ) were sick at the beginning of the Busan run. So later performances were much better than those videos.)
์ก์๊ทผ's Raoul is gentle, romantic and mentally mature(He looks younger than his age, but he is actually 40). His Raoul resembles Steve Barton's Raoul in many ways. I think he's one of the standard ALW Raouls. (If you like the original London cast, I recommend ์์ง์ Christine and ์ก์๊ทผ Raoul pair.) His gentle voice, good romance acting and nice dance skills are his strengths.(He is now a famous musical actor, but long ago he was an unfamous idol/dance singer. He has also been a drama actor since 2013.) + Personally, his stiflingย acting at The Final Lair was very impressive.
ํฉ๊ฑดํ has a very unique voice for Raoul. He has a very heavy tone. His deep voice color reminds me of Bengt Nordfors's Raoul. However, his Raoul is not as mature as Nordfors's. His Raoul is young(ํฉ๊ฑดํ is 25 years old, so I think that's the reason.) and andย fullย ofย enthusiasm like the Leroux Raoul. But his Raoul isn't fragile like the Leroux Raoul. His Raoul is weaker than Ramin and Hadley's, but it has a similar sense of mettle.
Doesn't ํฉ๊ฑดํ's impression resemble that of Hadley and Ramin? +I think ํฉ๊ฑดํ's strength is his nice singing skills.
To be honest, Korean audiences gave ์ก์ํ a better rating than ์์ง์ on the reservation site during Busan run. On the contrary, I've seen many non-Korean old phans tend to prefer ์์ง์. If you want to know why, go to 2-4). (* I love both of them similarly.)
2-1) Voice color: Both Christines have quite different voice colors. ๐์ก์ํ Christine has a clear and very light voice color. Her voice is transparent and light like a shinyย glass bead. Her voice color resembles previous Korean ALW Christines (Especially ๊น์ํ Christine) voice colors.(+ Emmy Rossum's voice color a little bit too.) ๐ค์์ง์ Christine has a light(but less lighter than ์ก์ํ's voice), warm and very soft(<-->clear) voice. I think her voice color is very unique! Her voice reminds me of soft and warm angel wings.
2-2) Singing style: ๐์ก์ํ sang POTO numbers more like musical singing style than opera " .(She majored in opera, but worked as a popera singer/an ensemble in the musical Elisabeth.) I think her singing style resembles previous Korean Christines (Especially, ์ตํ์ฃผ Christine's POTO Korea 1st revival run. *์ตํ์ฃผ's stage name in Japan was 'Sai Tamami'.) and Sierra Boggess (Particularly WYSHA) a lot. ์ก์ํ has a girlish voice and face(I think both Christines look younger than their age. ์ก์ํ is 30 years old and ์์ง์ is 33 years old.), but she is an independent and modernย Christine 'compared to the other Christine'. But her voice is light and less powerful than Sierra's, so sometimes I think her singing resembles Amy Manford too(But less operatic way).
๐ค์์ง์ sang POTO numbers in an operatic way. (She is an opera singer.) And her calm and classical singing style is very reminiscent of Sarah Brightman's singing style. (+ Rebecca Caine's West End run.) But warmer and softer than them(I think Caine and Brightman has cooler voice and more vivid voice).
I prefer ๐ค์์ง์'s WYSHA๐ค more than ์ก์ํ's and I prefer ๐์ก์ํ's TOM and POTO(I like her cadenza & high notes)๐ more than ์์ง์'s. Personally, ์์ง์'s WYSHA is one of the top five WYSHWs I've heard.
2-3) Character interpretation: ๐As I said above, ์ก์ํ Christine was an independent and modernย Christine 'compared to the other Christine'. Also, her interpretation influenced a lot by ์ตํ์ฃผ(์ตํ์ฃผ's Korea run. But I think ์ก์ํ's voice color and face resemble ๊น์ํ's.) and Sierra's. But I think her Christine is less stronger than Sierra's. + ์ก์ํ Christine's love for Phantom is more Erosive 'compared to the other Christine'. ++ I like ์ก์ํ's Serafimo.
๐คIn every way, ์์ง์'s Christine evoked the nostalgia of Christines in the 80s and 90s. (Her special voice color that distinguishes it from others, operatic singing style and Leroux-like Christine interpretation.) She was a very soft and warm Christine. She respected and relied on Phantom, her teacher and guardian. And her love for the Phantom was close to the Virgin Mary's agape love for humanity. I really love her classical Christine interpretation!
2-4) Points to be improved: I really love ์์ง์'s classical Christine, but she need to develop her dialogue acting and body acting. She is a native Korean and speaks Korean naturally in her daily life, but on stage, she spoke lines as if she were reading a textbook. She spoke strictly and exaggerates at the same time. I know POTO is a sung-through musical but her Little Lotte dialogue acting was not good. But if you are not a native Korean speaker, it will be hard to notice. (+ Interestingly, her songs contained a variety of emotions and her pronunciation was not strange when she sings.) I think this is why she is preferred by non-Korean phans over Korean audiences. If you want to know her strengths, read the keywords from 1-1) to 1-3).
์ก์ํ's lines and body acting were okay, but often ์์ง์'s facial expressions were better than her. (The interesting thing is that ์ก์ํ said she has been a phan for more than a decade, but the other Christine โ who wasn't a phan โ is preferred to her by a global phandom๐(I think it's because ์ก์ํ is a fan of Sierra and old phans tend to prefer classic POTO over 25th anniversary.)) And neither of them can do ballet professionally.
3. Phantom actors (* I didn't see ์กฐ์น์ฐ
Phantom's performance in a good seat, and his condition was not good at that day, so I'll exclude him from this Busan review.)
์ ๋์'s Phantom was a romantic and soft phantom like Kopit's Phantom(* He played Kopit Phantom. But still, his ALW Phantom was stronger than his kopit Phantom). His Phantom seemed to have loved Christine for a long time. Not every performance, but he would often greet Christine (as if he were worshiping her) during the POTO number like the picture below.
And he carefully stroked her face when she fell asleep during The Music of the Night. His phantom reminds me of Earl Carpenter's phantom, who was also a soft phantom and liked to stroke Christine's hair.
* ์ ๋์ sang POTO numbers by mixing musical and opera singing styles.(Although he majored in opera, he has worked as a musical actor for a long time, not an opera singer.) And he sang high notes well.
On the contrary, ๊น์ฃผํ's Phantom was a very strict teacher and musician who wants to strongly control his student โ Christine who will show his music to the world โ 'at first'. He looked domineering and sometimes very dangerous villain. During STYDI, ์ ๋์'s Phantom seemed so sad and he couldn't hurt Christine, but ๊น์ฃผํ's Phantom was very angry and seemed to strangle(but not kill) Christine if she was caught. But he got shocked and recognized his love to Christine when Christine handed over his mask during STYDI. After that ๊น์ฃผํ Phantom changed a lot. Even his voice changed a lot.
* At first, ๊น์ฃผํ Phantom's voice sounded very heavy and Phantom is in his mid-40s to early 50s, but after STYDI, his voice changed softly and Phantom is in his mid or late-30s except some scenes. (* ์ ๋์ Phantom's voice sounded like he is in his mid-30s. And his voice color was lighter than ๊น์ฃผํ's.) Also, ๊น์ฃผํ sang the numbers very operaically(It's natural that he is an opera singer(Baritone). *POTO is his musical debut).
I expected he still had a very scary side during AIAOY reprise 1, but I was surprised that he cried really a lot during AIAOY reprise 1. He broke my predictions several times and gave me fresh shocks as if I had never seen the Phantom of the Opera.
From here, I'm going to compare the two phantom actors. During PONR, ์ ๋์'s phantom was very sexy and I am sure his 'Don Juan Triumphant' must be loved by the audience. I saw the performance from the perspective of the Paris Opera audience who enjoyed the show. On the contrary, ๊น์ฃผํ Phantom's 'Don Juan Triumphant' seemed very dangerous. I felt a dangerous criminal go crazy and snuck in. I saw the performance from the perspective of the Paris Opera staff who were nervously watching the performance. And I love ๊น์ฃผํ's AIAOY reprise 2.
At the final lair, ์ ๋์ Phantom tended to recite that Christine was the only light to him after she left. I think his experience of Kopit Phantom was melted here. I like the way he emphasized Phantom's love to Christine. From beginning to end, the most important thing to him was Christine. Even during the 'Why So Silent', he thought that 'you' were Christine, not Andrรฉ and Firmin. Anyway, he let Christine go and cried, but he also smiled (like Ethan Freeman's Phantom) because his soul was saved by her kiss. ๊น์ฃผํ Phantom's final lair was scary and nervous. But Christine, especially soft and angelic ์์ง์ Christine, melted that dramatically with a warm heart and kisses. I think ๊น์ฃผํ Phantom and ์์ง์ Christine are a really good match for each other. They have similar singing styles(They are both opera singers and studied at the Conservatorio di Musica Giuseppe Verdi di Milano.) and the height difference between ๊น์ฃผํ(178cm) and ์์ง์(early 160s) is also appropriate. (*์ก์ํ is taller than 170cm and she wears Christine's heels on stage, so she has better chemistry with tall phantoms. **The phantom in the image below is ์ ๋์, who is 186cm tall.)
Let's get back to the point. I think ์์ง์'s interpretation of Christine goes well with all Korean Phantoms. But I think ์์ง์'s soft and warm Christine goes best with ๊น์ฃผํ's strict and scary phantom. It reminds me of a fairy tale that the goddess of spring softly melts the god of cold winter. + ๊น์ฃผํ's Phantom also smiled (like Ethan Freeman's Phantom) at the end.
4. Carlottas, Piangi, Meg and Andrรฉ.
Both Carlotta actresses are young and are not much older than Christine actresses. For example, ํ๋ณด๋ผ โ one of the Carlotta actresses, was born in 1988, and ์์ง์ โ one of the Christine actresses, was born in 1989. So that reminded me of the relationship between Patti sisters(Adelina Patti/Carlotta Patti) and Christine Nilsson(*Both Adelina and Christine were born in 1843). ํ๋ณด๋ผ, in particular, has a light tone like Adelina. (The other Carlotta โ ์ด์ง์ has a calm voice.)
๋ฐํ๋ฆผ Piangi was really good at both singing and acting. The long extension of Hannibal high note at the end of the Busan run was very surprising.
์กฐํ๋ฆฐ, who played Meg, has a sweet and girlish voice :) I like her Meg, though she sometimes struggled with the high notes. Her dance was great too.
Finally, I admired ์ค์์'s Andrรฉ. His Andrรฉ really loves music and art. It was really impressive that his eyes were shining when he saw arts. His Andrรฉ was as good as his Phantom in both singing and acting.
