In the 1970s Kim Jong Il personally guided the work of reproducing the immortal classic masterpiece that had been personally created by President Kim Il Sung in the period of the anti-Japanese armed struggle into a revolutionary opera “Sea of Blood”.
At that time the DPRK’s opera was confined to the European opera of the 17th century or the form of Changguk (Korean classical opera).
Kim Jong Il personally went to the spot and gave precious instructions to such problems in creating opera as composition of scenes, performance of actors and actresses, change of scenes and hand props.
In particular, he gave detailed instructions on the opera songs, the important means in depicting the opera.
At that time the creators, who imitated the form of operas fashioned in other countries, just put melodies on the stage words or made melodies very high and low saying that they characterized the opera.
Kim Jong Il listened to their songs one by one and said that it is an old diagram to melodize the stage words as they were. He asked them to make the words stanza and melodize them, because the people don’t like them.
Saying that the people can sing songs understand them easily if their melody is gentle, he personally chose the songs for the opera and gave finishing touch to them one by one in conformity with feelings and sentiments of the popular masses.
Today the songs of the revolutionary operas such as “Sea of Blood” and “A Flower Girl” created under the guidance of Kim Jong Il enjoy love of the Korean people and the world people and they are widely sung among them, for their popularity and conventionality.
