Collaborative musical needs careful blending
Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta
Bringing good ideas to life can sometimes be difficult. This was true in the case of the opera Raja Bali Chandrakirana (The King of Bali Chandrakirana) staged here on Thursday and Friday.
The collaborative musical production under the cosponsorship of Yogyakarta's Indonesian Institute of Arts (ISI) and the American-Indonesian Exchange Foundation, the opera was expected to showcase a unique blend between the East and West, mixing the traditions of western opera with Indonesian theater.
Commissioned by the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts, the King of Bali Chandrakirana opera had a cast of more than 40 singers, dancers and actors, as well as some 40 other musicians in the symphony chamber orchestra and gamelan musicians.
Composed and written by Vincent McDermott, a retired professor at Lewis and Clark College in the U.S. and a visiting senior Fulbright scholar teaching at ISI Yogyakarta, the opera's libretto was prepared by Kathy Foley, a professor at the University of California and a senior Fulbright scholar to Indonesia.
Noted Indonesian author Bakdi Soemanto of Gadjah Mada University's School of Cultural Studies prepared the translation of the libretto, while Budhi Ngurah and Yudiaryani of ISI Yogyakarta were entrusted to be the conductor and stage director of the show.
Linda Sitinjak, the lead singer, played Candrakirana/Kuda Narawangsa, Kriswanti starred as Prawan Jagalan, and Albert Wishnu played Panji. The dalang was performed by Tedy Sutadhy, a lecturer at ISI's School of Music. The rest, including the orchestra and gamelan players, are all from ISI and are involved in various studies of mostly performance, dance and music.
The efforts to present the opera, however, deserved praise. Musically, the Javanese gamelan as well as the chamber orchestra played simultaneously or alternately to accompany both the songs and the movements. The vocal styles too ranged from bel canto to pesinden (a Javanese singer usually accompanying the gamelan). Stage movements mostly followed western conventions, but at times puppets derived from the wayang (shadow puppet show) also replaced the singers on stage.
The presence of a dalang in the opera, as well, was certainly borrowed from the wayang. However, there was one difference. The dalang in the traditional wayang stays behind the stage, but in this particular performance, he came out to center stage to pull the strings.
The opera's story centers on the rulers of the land of Kahuripan, Prince Panji Inu Kertapati and his consort Princess Chandrakirana, who live in a world of harmony. But then something happens to break the spell. Soon, a series of adventures follow after Chandrakirana's disappearance.
The audience is then transported on Chandrakirana's adventures. First, she is transformed into a strong, independent man who, with a stroke of luck, becomes the King of Bali under the new name of Kuda Narawangsa. It was here that he must take a stand and defend his new country against the attacking Panji who, with his armies, thinks he is on the trail of his wife.
After watching the show, the question still remains. Did these two different forces blend nicely on stage?
Most of the audience who enjoyed the opera that night, including noted theater artist Bondan Nusantara, seemed to agree that there was a lot to be done to make the performance meet its earlier expectations.
"As an idea, this opera is a very good one. The meeting between two completely different poles of cultures can yield a big spirit. It deserves our support. Only, there are many technical matters that need to be reevaluated to make it a mature work of art, Bondan told The Jakarta Post.
He cited the movements, expressions and costumes of the opera still needed to be improved to meet the standard of this kind of performance. It needed, he said, a bigger and more sophisticated appearance, not just in terms of colors and costume designs, but also stage movements. The orchestra and gamelan should also be more in harmony, he added.
The orchestra, under Budhi Ngurah, and the gamelan by I Wayan Ngurah, blended nicely during the show, but at times, seemed distant from the other.
Theater artist Sutanto Mendut of Teater Mendut said the music was "not communicating" with each other.
"The music seemed confused, not knowing what to say at a particular time or place. It's like a person was communicating with someone who lives in a distant time zone, and they don't know whether to say 'good night' or 'good day'," he said.
But he praised composer Vincent McDermott for his work.
"I think he is educating his students, inexperienced students, in something new, something they did not know before. And we should appreciate this," Tanto said.
Stage director Yudhiarni explained that limited funding and time were the two main constraints that resulted in the lack of harmony in producing the opera.