Soprano Hera Hyesang Park finds hope amid adversity in 'Breathe'

Music & Performance

Published: 07 Feb. 2024, 15:51

Soprano Hera Hyesang Park finds hope amid adversity in 'Breathe'

Hera Hyesang Park sings during a press conference for her latest album ″Breathe″ in Seocho District, southern Seoul, on Monday. [UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP]

Hera Hyesang Park’s second full-length album, “Breathe,” which was released last week, is based on the opera singer’s “meditation, profoundness and spirituality.”

It’s the 35-year-old soprano’s first album since 2020, when she came out with “I Am Hera.” Both albums were released under Deutsche Grammophon (DG), a renowned German classical music record label that is part of Universal Music Group. Park is the first and only Asian soprano signed under DG.

While Park’s wish is that the album gives condolence to whoever listens to it, it was initially supposed to be much more sorrowful, as Park had originally planned for it to be about death.

“Production for this album first started two and a half years ago, during the pandemic, which was a very hard time for me, personally,” Park said during a press conference about “Breathe” on Monday.

“I kept doubting myself and wondering, ‘What exactly does it mean to live well?’ and ‘What is death?’ It’s the most fundamental and simple question anyone can have, so the album stemmed from those thoughts.”

But throughout the production process, Park began to feel “more depressed” as she was constantly “grieving about death.”

“That’s not the kind of message I wanted to convey to my listeners,” she said. It was when she came across the Seikilos epitaph, the oldest surviving complete musical composition in the world, which was written around the first or second century, that her perspective completely changed.

“It was the phrase, ‘While you live, shine; have no grief at all,’ that stole my heart and which made me decide to change the direction of my album.”

The album cover for Hera Hyesang Park’s second full-length album, “Breathe″ [UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP]

Park traveled to visit the Way of St. James and Michelangelo’s “Pietà” for inspiration, which ultimately became the compositions “While You Live” and “Vocal Ice” in her new album. “Breathe” also features a gagok (original Korean vocal music) piece, “Woo: Requiem aeternam (Eoi Gari),” composed by Woo Hyo-won.

The album cover shows Park underwater, with a distinctively relaxed face. Park says she got the idea from a lucid dream that “enlightened” her.

“I was on top of a mountain, and a mystical energy came toward me,” Park said. “I then dived into the deep water and everyone else watched me and held a party. Then the background started blazing with color, with rainbows and flowers and trees that bloomed. The entire time, I was watching the scene underwater while smiling. It was such a blessing; I felt so alive even in a situation where I could be scared of dying, and I knew I had to manifest this into the album.”

Park has a busy year ahead, with a recital at the Lotte Concert Hall in southern Seoul on Feb. 13. After that, she is set to perform all over the world: in London, Buenos Aires, New York, Paris, Edinburgh, Los Angeles, Hamburg and Budapest.

“I think the most important thing is to never lose love,” Park said. “People who know how to love are brave even in the face of death. The repertoire for my recitals all have one thing in common: to let us love, and to let us shine brightly instead of wasting time being sad.”

BY SHIN MIN-HEE [shin.minhee@joongang.co.kr]