Busan to hold public forum on La Scala invitation performance

Busan city government announced Thursday it will hold a public forum on Aug. 24 to deliberate with residents on the successful opening and sustainable operation of the Busan Opera House.

The forum was organized to explore how the Busan Opera House can evolve beyond a performance venue into a full-scale opera production theater — one that creates original opera and ballet works and expands the city's performing arts ecosystem.

At the center of the discussion will be whether to proceed with an invitation performance by Milan's La Scala, a project championed under former Mayor Park Heong-joon. During the June 3 local elections, candidate Jeon Jae-soo singled out the La Scala invitation — a project in the 10 billion won ($7.07 million) range — as a prime example of showy, wasteful spending, pledging to redirect the funds toward his "100-day emergency livelihood measures" budget.

After winning the mayoral race, however, Jeon's transition team raised the view that outright cancellation was not appropriate and that the continuity of ongoing procedures and contracts should be respected. Following his inauguration, Jeon launched a public deliberation process to assess whether the 10 billion won investment would generate sufficient ripple effects for the local arts community and meet the public interest — and to secure procedural legitimacy and public acceptance.

The forum will share the current status of the project with residents and gather opinions on what cultural value the Busan Opera House should offer citizens. A city official will first present a plan for activating the local arts ecosystem through the opera house's development as a production theater, followed by a panel discussion featuring Oh Jae-hwan, former chief executive of the Busan Cultural Foundation; Yang Song-mi, a professor at Kyungsung University; Park Jae-yul, standing representative of the Busan Citizens' Alliance for Decentralization and Balanced Development; Lee Seung-ho, former chair of the Busan Music Association; and Jang Jin-gyu, chair of the Busan City Opera Companies Association.

The forum runs from 3 p.m. on Aug. 24 at the main auditorium on the first floor of Busan City Hall. Registration is open Thursday through Aug. 21 at the Classic Busan website (classicbusan.busan.go.kr). Following the forum, the city plans to convene the Busan Cultural Cooperation Committee in September to deliberate on whether to proceed with the La Scala performance, and will also hold a town hall meeting on cultural and arts policy for the ninth elected-term administration.