'Gambuh' opera company tour revives dying tradition

Bali's oldest opera at verge of extinction

GIANYAR, Bali (JP): Balinese folk opera Gambuh is dying. Gambuh theaters are rare and few people are interested in learning about the most important traditional performing art.

Gambuh opera, believed to be the mother of all traditional Balinese performing arts, is performed mostly at major Hindu ceremonies. Will the opera become extinct?

There is, apparently, a ray of hope. A Gambuh opera company has been touring Bali, performing at a number of places since the beginning of April.

Not only are they performing at Hindu rituals but they will also appear at the Bali Arets Festival XXI at the Cultural Center in Denpasar on July 11. The annual festival opened on June 26 and will close on July 17.

A surprise is the old opera, whose storyline revolves around the Panji epic of ancient Javanese royalty, is performed by high- spirited young people. Another surprise is they will perform an imported story, William Shakespeare's MacBeth.

The new Gambuh opera group is affiliated to the Arti Foundation, which dedicates itself to the re-exploration and development of Balinese classical culture.

Under the leadership of Kadek Suardana, the group is planning to go on a world tour. As a warmup, they have been touring Bali and performing at several temples free of charge. The hosts pay for transport and accommodation.

The group will visit Germany and Sweden from Nov. 1 to Nov. 20.

Audiences are generally impressed by the company's creative and innovative performance. For example, the scene from MacBeth where the king was murdered was depicted in a curtained room that was carried around on stage. The war scene was dramatized by vigorous movements and the sounds of coconut leaves.

Despite some innovation, Suardana does not alter the standard Gambuh basics. He intends to present Gambuh in its original version. For example, he has an all-male cast. The plain costumes the cast wear create an archaic impression and the dance is classically elegant.

"We want to invoke a Balinese interest in the meaning of Gambuh in a contemporary context," Suardana said.

In the past, Gambuh was a prestigious performance among the royal family. It is believed that Gambuh is a legacy of the Majapahit Kingdom in 13-16th century East Java which came to Bali some time in the 15th century during the heyday of the Gelgel Kingdom, Klungkung.

In the era of King Dalem Waturenggong of Gelgel, the Balinese art was in its golden age. Gambuh was born during his reign and became a favorite court show. At that time, all palaces in Bali were provided with Bale pegambuhan, or a stage for Gambuh performances.

After the Gelgel Kingdom crumbled, Gambuh lost its sacredness and became public property. In the 1960 Bali Arts Festival, eight regencies sent their companies but in 1970, Gambuh groups practically disappeared. In religious rituals at Bekasih temple, the largest in Bali, the opera is performed by the same group.

Gambuh is in jeopardy.

Some years ago, the Ford Foundation offered financial assistance for the preservation, research and documentation of this endangered performing art in Gianyar and Denpasar.

The revival of Gambuh received a boost from Basel Gambuh Ensambel from Switzerland which performed in Bali in 1998.

As a legacy of the ancient kingdoms, Gambuh opera is highly sophisticated and serious. It has a fixed pattern and its presentation follows some protocol procedures. Its artistic value comes from complex choreography and background music.

The elements of dance and music are tightly intertwined. Every character has a different background meticulously arranged with music and specific movements. They all speak Kawi, archaic Javanese language, with a rigid accent.

Gambuh MacBeth will be a potential success if it is prepared properly. Special attention should be paid to the pronunciation of the Kawi dialect, especially intonation. Often, the dialog in the dead language is neither fluent nor expressive.

In Gambuh, musical and dance esthetics is above all. The storyline is a mere setting. Therefore, the bitterness and tragedy of MacBeth are not so dramatically verbalized. The storyline and emotion is flat. MacBeth might be more dramatic if it is presented in another traditional Balinese play like Arja or Gong.

The writer is a teacher at the Indonesian Arts College in Denpasar.