Asia News: NY Met Opera Orchestra Debut; Fuji Rock Adds Big Names; K-pop Vs. Tay-pop

NYC Met Opera Orchestra To Make Debut

New York City’s Metropolitan Opera Orchestra will be making its first tour of Asia this summer, according to the New York Times.

The tour of South Korea, Japan and Taiwan was originally supposed to take place several years ago but was cancelled because of the COVID pandemic.

The 110-member ensemble’s music director, Yannick Nezet-Seguin, will conduct works by Bartok, Wagner, Debussy and others with vocal assistance from mezzo-soprano Elina Garanca, soprano Lisette Oropesa and bass-baritone Christian Van Horn.

Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager, told the Times, “It’s important that we serve our global constituency with live performances in person when we can. It’s very good for the morale of the orchestra to be able to perform in major cities of the world.” Last year, Nezet-Seguin took the Met Orchestra to Europe, the company’s first tour since 2002.
The Asia tour, which is expected to be very expensive, has already lined up sponsors, including Rolex, Bank of America and several private donors.

Asia is a fertile market for classical music at the moment, and a number of orchestras from the U.S. have embarked on tours there since the end of the pandemic, including the New York Philharmonic and select members of the Philadelphia Orchestra.

JAPAN

Fuji Rock Adds Global Artists

Fuji Rock Festival, which takes place in the mountains of Japan’s Niigata Prefecture
July 26-28, announced another batch of artists including the Sunday night headliner,
which will be Fuji perennial Noel Gallagher with his High Flying Birds.

Peggy Gou has been added for Friday night, though not as the day’s headliner on the main Green Stage, which has yet to be announced.

Other new acts on the roster include The Allman Betts Band, Remi Wolf, Man With A Mission, Kim Gordon, Hiromi’s Sonicwonder and Sampha.

KOREA

Fans Prefer K-pop To Tay-pop?

Though K-pop practically rules the world right now, the Republic of Korea doesn’t always attract the biggest international pop stars when they embark on global tours, a fact that became obvious during Taylor Swift’s recent “Eras Tour,” which made only two stops in Asia: Tokyo and Singapore.

Tokyo, the second biggest music market in the world, is a mandatory stop for any world-class artist and Singapore, as shown by its savvy negotiating skills in getting Swift to concentrate all her Southeast Asian dates in the city-state, has become a regional tourism powerhouse.

South Korea’s JoongAng Daily newspaper wondered why South Korea didn’t belong in the same league given the proven spending power of Korean music fans.

In a March 10 report, JoongAng concluded mainly that it was a matter of lack of a proper venue.

There are no stadiums at the moment equal in size and capability to Japan’s Tokyo Dome and Singapore’s National Stadium, both of which can seat 55,000. Seoul’s Gocheok Sky Dome and KSPO Dome can handle only up to 15,000.

There are some stadiums in Korea, but none are enclosed and thus the concerts might be too cold if they take place in the winter, which is when Swift’s tour was happening. (Singapore is located closer to the equator.)

However, a more salient reason covered by the newspaper that hasn’t generally been mentioned is Swift’s relative weaker popularity in Korea.

The last time Swift played in the country, in 2011 at the KSPO Dome during the “Speak Now” tour, she didn’t sell out, something that industry insiders told the newspaper was likely a “contributing factor” as to why the tour didn’t even inquire about a stop in Korea.
One anonymous concert organizer told the newspaper, “At the end of the day, the artist has to want to come…[and] it’s not always about the money.

Taylor Swift’s agency would have considered everything – the potential income, the cost, the fans in Korea, their online engagement, how much they’re expected to spend at the concert and so on.”

The paper says that while Swift has gained in popularity among Koreans in recent years, the local music industry itself is “quite conservative when it comes to accepting foreign culture.”

No song by an artist from outside of Korea has ever topped a Korean music chart.
In addition, the recent concert film, “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,” did not do nearly as well as it did elsewhere, including other Asian countries.

Only 37% of the theater seats available during the movie’s run were sold, according to the Korea Box Office Information System.

One pop music critic summed up her appeal to Koreans, or lack thereof, by saying, “It’s true that Taylor Swift’s songs are a little different from the other pop stars that Korean people typically like, such as Charlie Puth.

“But there is also the possibility that Korean fans haven’t had the opportunity to unite and show their power as a fandom. If she had come to [Korea this time] and put on four concerts, there is no way that the tickets wouldn’t have sold out within mere seconds.”

The newspaper concludes that until more appropriately large-scale venues are available, it’s unlikely that stars of a Swiftian magnitude will consider Seoul on their global jaunts, and the soonest that will happen is 2027, when the Seoul Arena is scheduled to be completed.

SINGAPORE

Deep Purple Latest To Book Singapore Only

Earlier this year, it was announced that Deep Purple would headline the Singapore Rockfest 2024 on May 1 at Fort Canning Park.

Ticketing platform Sistic is now selling tickets to the festival in Malaysia, which is just next door.

In response, according to Malaysia Today, Malaysian music fans have “expressed displeasure” that they are being shut out of another tour by a major Western act.

As with Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour,” Deep Purple is making Singapore its only Southeast Asian stop on its upcoming tour.

Malaysia Today quoted one disappointed online fan as saying, “Singapore again, I can’t believe it. Let them come to Malaysia to perform.”

The last time Deep Purple played a show in the region was 2013, and that was Singapore, as well.

CHINA

Sands China Partners With CCTV

Sands China Ltd., which operates casinos in Macau, has announced a tie-up with China’s state broadcaster, China Central Television (CCTV), according to GGR Asia. The partnership will promote various types of “cultural events, arts performances, concerts and sporting events” on a news website run by CCTV.

In a statement, Sands said the two entities would “jointly develop new cultural brands or promote existing ones related to stage plays, variety shows, films, TV dramas and online audiovisual content” by “organizing events, tours, exhibitions and festivals.”

Since the end of the pandemic, a number of the territory’s casino operators have partnered with China-based enterprises to expand their entertainment offerings for guests and visitors, mainly in the area of live concerts and broadcast programming.

In the case of this new partnership, the projects are meant to be “hosted” on properties owned by Sands China.