1st story checked -- JSR

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