The return of the cigar-makeress

“There is a noise inside the tabago factory and the revolting cigar-makeress bursts into the stage,” reads the classic fractured English synopsis of Carmen. Now a Korea-based English-language site steps up to the plate with a season preview fetchingly entitled “Glamorous Opera and Moist Aria.” Some highlights:

The set of the Roman Theater that reproduce the stage with the handwritten signature of Puccini, the clothing, items, and lights will be moved in as a bunch. It will bring the audience pleasure to see the original when the modernized interpretation is a boom as it is these days.

Director Lee So-yeong, who developed a good reputation last year through “Un Ballo in Maschera” and “Faust,” presents a Verdi opera “Don Carlos” with her unique simple and symbolic stages. She plans to direct in a modern way by reviving the awesome Inquisition through the red blood on the white wall and the scene where 200 crosses rise up all at once.

“La Traviata,” presented by the National Opera Company of Korea and directed by Wolgram Mehring, focuses more on the cruel tragedy created by social prejudice than on the love between a man and a woman . . . . “I intend to present the world of dreams that do not exist in reality through the stage art with dreamy airs, and I believe that the true reality will be brought to relief in this way,” says Mehring.

“La Triviata” . . . is performed by soprano Stefania Bonfadelli, who is reputed as the first world-class Violeta since Angela Gheorghiu

Initially tenor Richard Margison, who is performing in the U.S. Metropolitan Opera, was expected to act the part of Don Carlo along with Kim Jae-hyeong, but he dropped due to such matters as the North Korean nuclear testing.