Guruh puts Sukarno's power back on stage
JAKARTA (JP): Missing the first president Sukarno's orations? You can hear his words, along with 17 patriotic songs, at a performance on Aug. 15 at the Assembly Hall of the Jakarta Convention Center in Senayan, Central Jakarta.
The performance, which is organized by the Bung Karno Foundation and Kinarya GSP, is to commemorate the birth centennial of Indonesia's founding father. The centennial commemoration itself will end in June next year.
President Megawati Soekarnoputri, one of the foundation's founders and Sukarno's daughter, is scheduled to attend the performance.
Leading soprano Aning Katamsi and tenor Christopher Abimanyu are among the artists who will sing Guruh's patriotic songs. Other performers are husky-voiced singer Reza, noted pop singer and song writer Chrisye and child sensation Sherina, along with the Erwin Gutawa choir.
The two-hour performance will be opened with Warsa Wijaya bedoyo (a sacred Javanese dance), choreographed by Guruh himself.
"The dance will feature modern choreography and will be accompanied by Javanese songs with Indonesian lyrics that will be sung by sinden (Javanese song singer) Nenah," Guruh said in a press conference early this week.
An archival film of Sukarno declaring Indonesia's independence on Aug. 17, 1945 will follow the opening.
The Erwin Gutawa orchestra will then play patriotic songs to be sung by the supporting artists mentioned above. Guruh hinted that his performance this year will still contain cabaret-style dance, a feature of his choreography since his first "Untukmu Indonesiaku" performance back in the 1970s.
Tickets will be sold at between Rp 100,000 and Rp 300,000.
All 17 songs will be available on a CD and cassette which will be officially launched in conjunction with the performance.
The country's top arrangers -- Erwin, Addie MS, Elfa Secioria, Entik and Andi Riyanto -- have collaborated on the musical arrangement in the recording.
The exclusive and limited edition CD -- each with an accompanying booklet containing photographs of Sukarno and 12 postcards -- will be sold for millions of rupiah, but Guruh declined to disclose exactly how much. Of the 500 special edition CDs, 100 of them are personally signed by Megawati.
For public sales, the CD will be priced at Rp 150,000 while the cassette will be Rp 50,000.
Sukarno' admirers are recommended to acquire either the CD or cassette, as in each song, there are snippets of his orations.
Guruh said that proceeds from the tickets, CD and cassette sales will go to the foundation to finance its project, the Sukarno Center.
The center -- which is planned to have a library, museum, multipurpose hall, an archive and research center -- will be build on a 10-hectare site near Jakarta although Guruh remained silent on the location. (yan)