1st story checked -- JSR Tony Prabowo to stage Calon Arang
Composer Tony Prabowo and essayist Goenawan Mohammad are due to collaborate in a contemporary music concert at Taman Ismail Marzuki (TIM) arts center.
The event, scheduled for August 2006, is expected to include five compositions, including Pastoral and The King's Witch operettas.
The concert will involve musicians Joel Sachs and Stephanie Griffin from the United States, choreographer Sen Hea Ha from Korea and Batavia Madrigal Singers conducted by Avip Priatna.
"I will turn the text and the music (from Goenawan and Tony respectively) into a stage play," director Yudi Ahmad Tajudin told a press briefing recently.
Pastoral, a poem about happiness, will be performed by singers Nyak Ina Raseuki and Binu D. Sukarman.
Meanwhile, The King's Witch is a legend about Calon Arang, a witch from a small village of Girah, Kediri, East Java. Her daughter, Manjali, cannot find a man to marry because all men are afraid of Calon Arang.
The angry Calon Arang creates an epidemic that affects the whole kingdom, which then prompts King Airlangga to assign Empu Bharada to defeat the witch.
The legend is told from the king's point of view. It is believed that Calon Arang and the people of Girah had their own version.
The presentation attempts to portray another version of the story about Calon Arang. "This is not an opera, but rather a musical concert," said Goenawan who wrote the script.
The King's Witch was first staged in New York in 1999. -- JP
;AP; ANPA ..r.. US-People-Usher Usher gives U.S. magazine readers dating tips JP/20/GUESS
Usher gives U.S. magazine readers dating tips
NEW YORK: Need some dating tips? Ask Usher.
The R&B singer, who is starring in his first lead role in In the Mix, shared his secrets with Time magazine.
"Women love compliments, you know what I mean? Buy her a drink," he said. "Talk to her about whatever it is that she wants to talk about. As long as you keep her laughing, you got it."
The film features the 27-year-old musician as Darrell, a playboy New York City disc jockey who finds himself in an interracial relationship with co-star Emmanuelle Chriqui.
Usher, whose 2004 Confessions had huge critical and commercial success, isn't the only musician with a movie these days. Rapper 50 Cent has his own movie, too. Both show the stars baring some skin. But does Usher think he's the better man?
"I'm a smaller guy. 50's got the arms, I got the abs," he says. --AP
GetAP 1.00 -- NOV 21, 2005 02:17:04
;AP; ANPA ..r.. US-People-Ledger-Williams Producer of 'Brokeback Mountain' says Ledger-Williams romance was a JP/20/GUESS
Producer of 'Brokeback Mountain' says Ledger-Williams romance was a gift
NEW YORK: For the producer of Brokeback Mountain, a real-life romance between Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams was a gift.
The film stars Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal as ranch hands who fall in love, then hide their affair from their wives and families for years. Williams, best known for her years on the teen drama Dawson's Creek, plays Ledger's wife, Alma.
"It was a big gift to have two people falling in love in our midst," producer James Schamus told Time magazine in a story about the movie. "You forget how lovely that is."
Ledger, 26, and Williams, 25, are engaged and recently had their first child, Matilda. --AP
GetAP 1.00 -- NOV 21, 2005 02:10:39