On the Art of Opera is a 1974 treatise by Kim Jong Il on opera. According to Korea University associate professor of North Korean studies Jae-Cheon Lim, it is one of the most important North Korean works on the arts. At the time of writing, Kim had just started his career in the North Korean cultural industry. The piece takes as its framework the Juche ideology and "seed" theory that Kim had previously applied to cinema. Because opera is a mixed art form, Kim finds it particularly revealing of a nation's artistic state and important for the application of his seed theory. Kim finds hierarchies between and within elements of opera, like instruments subordinate to vocals and music over dance. The main thrust of the work is to replace classical – mainly Western but also certain forms of Korean – opera with an allegedly superior Korean revolutionary opera. Kim analyzes various Western operatic forms such as aria, recitative, and leitmotif to reject them. In Kim's view, the ideal revolutionary opera should be based on stanzaic and strophic songs, of which the highest form is a supposedly novel form of offstage chorus called pangchang. The opera that is, according to Kim, most characteristic of his ideas is Sea of Blood, which is to be emulated.

Korean revolutionary opera (Korean: 조선혁명가극) is a tradition of revolutionary opera in North Korea inspired by Chinese Revolutionary Opera which blossomed during the Cultural Revolution. It is characterized by a highly melodramatic style and reoccurring themes of patriotism and glorification of Juche, President Kim Il Sung, and the working people, as well as a focus on socialist realist themes. Composers of North Korean revolutionary opera are employed by the North Korean government and the fundamental principles of North Korean revolutionary opera were dictated by Kim Jong Il in his speech On the Art of Opera.