[Peter Sellars to direct?] BEIJING, Dec. 9 (Xinhuanet) -- The musical opera "Cooking Nanta" from Republic of Korea (ROK) will stage in Beijing from Jan. 13 to 17, offering Chinese audience traditional Korean art "Samulnori rhythm" in the form of western musical opera. "Cooking Nanta" tells a story that three chefs and their assistants, who are not willing to cooperate, had to prepare for a big wedding dinner within short time. [A Korean, food-oriented version of "Ariadne auf Naxos"?...:)] In the two-hour performance, the performers will use common kitchen stuff to make various sounds that compose "Samulnori rhythm". [Samulnori means "four instruments" (kwaengwari, jing, janggu, and buk), the form has roots in Buddhist and farmers' music] According to the organizer, "Cooking Nanta" was staged last May as an important program of the Meet-in-Beijing Culture Festival, an annually gala held by the Chinese Ministry of Culture. "Cooking Nanta" was produced in 1997, and began its world tour performance in 2000. By the end of last year, the musical opera has been staged more than 4,000 times in the ROK, and more than 750 times in 150 foreign cities. [So how come you never heard of it? I certainly haven't.] Janos Gereben www.sfcv.org [log in to unmask]