Taking this journey back to The Kingdom of the Windshas flooded my heart with emotion. It is the poignancy of G.O’s performance that calls me back over and over again to revisit the moments he spent on the Seoul Arts Center stage. Today I am offering a Vocal Virtuosity moment, but not from the stage. I choose the moment G.O and his co-star from the musical, Go Young Bin visited the Culture Bookmark show, talked about the musical, and performed the haunting 무휼과 호동의 노래 [Muhyul and Hodong’s Song].
My last Heavenly Collaboration post on Day 199 featured G.O’s vocal partnership with his Seopyeonje co-star Jang Eun Ah. I must have G.O’s musicals on the brain because I decided that his collaboration (on the 바람의나라 musical stage) with Go Young Bin was equally as heavenly. For this post, I am revisiting KBSLife’s Bookmark Culture show where, back in May 2014, the two talented musical actors sat down to talk about their work together on the musical stage. They also performed a song from 바람의나라, and that is my focus for this post.
2014. What a year. Inasmuch as I have encouraged myself to not worry about the future, or dwell on the past, I cannot help but remember 2014 for so many reasons. Even if the year ended on a rather dour note with the news of changes in MBLAQ’s dynamic, it is impossible to deny that up until that point, G.O was having a spectacular year, both as main vocal for MBLAQ and on his own as a musical theater actor.
Duet. A performance by two people, especially singers. Two voices locked in perfect harmony, emotion and delivery. But, it is more than that. In a July 2012 interview with ABC News about sharing the stage with another vocalist in a duet, R&B singer Robin Thicke summed it up nicely when he said:
“It’s not about singing with perfect pitch or timing, it’s about feeling. All art is supposed to create feeling and if you sing with passion and you sing from your soul then people will feel it.”
People will feel it. I think he was talking about G.O, right? There is perhaps no truer way to describe the type of vocalist G.O set out to become and thus accomplished: A vocalist who sings with passion from the soul. Indeed. It may seem that all of the passion, emotion and feeling he brings to a song could not possibly be tempered (or matched) when partnered in a duet. I assure you, however, there is something special about the way G.O settles into a duet and lends his passion, emotion and feeling to the dynamic. For me, this is yet another reason to love this very talented man and his incredible artistry as a vocalist.
As I sit down to gather my final thoughts about the musical 바람의나라 (The Kingdom of The Winds), and in particular, G.O’s gentle nuanced performance, I truly do not know where to begin. Before I stepped into the theatre to watch it unfold real-time, I did a little background check of the story so I would have some idea going in. Still, nothing could have prepared me for the powerful and emotional interpretation brought to the stage by the Seoul Arts Group or the tender, heart-wrenching performance by G.O in the role of Prince Hodong. G.O continues to shock and amaze me.
Ok…since I had such an outrageously great time while in Seoul to see the amazing, extremely handsome and magnificently talented G.O in the musical Seopyeonje, it was only natural for me to want to return to Seoul to see him in this third musical, 바람의나라 (The Kingdom of the Winds). Naturally.
I hadn’t even had time to catch my breath and absorb the complete wonder and splendor of Seopyeonje when my G.Oddess partner in all things G.O, Nelly (MyMyooz), messaged me that our beautiful bias was cast in another musical. Immediately after news broke regarding that fantastic news, I began seeing tweets and posts everywhere. But wait. G.O was single cast in a musical that was scheduled to open on May 11th when he still was in the throes of starring in Seopyeonje until May 8th? Was he crazy?? I thought, this must be a big deal. And, it was. See, The Kingdom of the Winds is a pretty prestigious musical that has its roots deeply set in the art world. G.O cast in a leading role in the musical was indeed a big deal. And one thing was for sure, I knew I was going to have to find a way to see it.
