Lia in love with Javanese art

Lia in love with Javanese art

Yusuf Susilo Hartono, Contributor, Jakarta

Until recently, Cornelia "Lia" Agatha was not interested in
Javanese art although everybody knows she has mixed blood of
Javanese, Manadonese and Dutch.

She could not appreciate the elaborate, graceful Javanese
dances and soulful songs. In short, the 29-year-old frowned on
everything reeking of Javanese.

Lia, as the actress is popularly called, could never bring
herself to like Javanese art, a noble kind of art to those who
admire it.

That was all her past, however.

"Now the hate has turned into true love," said Lia, whose
other hats include modeling and starring in commercials.

"I realize the slow and monotonous Javanese music and dances
radiate oriental spirituality and elegance."

Lia, who once studied at the Jakarta Institute of Arts (IKJ)
majoring in visual arts, but dropped out when she was in the
fifth semester, has fundamentally changed in the way she sees
art.

It was at the Yogyakarta Palace that Lia fell in love with
Javanese art. At that time she was involved in the production of
"Javanese Opera" by Max Havelaar under the directorship of S.
Kardjono. Then she played the role of a Dutch lady, Tine
Havelaar, complete with the Dutch accent.

While in the palace of Hamengku Buwono X, she felt a certain
force -- something spiritual -- that sneaked into her heart and
made her fall in love with Javanese art.

Later, she realized that this momentum was the result of
getting along with traditional artists of Kardjono's group. What
was of no less significance was that her mother's habit of
playing traditional Javanese songs at home.

Love grows out of practice. Over time, the Javanese music that
her mother played seeped into her soul. Her mother, she said, was
surprised to see this change.

Lia used to think that singing traditional Javanese songs
required the same technique as singing pop songs. When she could
not produce the high-pitched voice needed, she would ask that the
basic note be lowered.

Later she was told by Kardjono that gamelan music was
different from pop music. In the former, everything is fixed.
Therefore Lia had to produce the high-pitched voice. Then she
learned the right technique to sing traditional Javanese songs
from veteran singers.

"I've never recited the Holy Koran, but perhaps singing
traditional Javanese songs may be likened to Koran recital," she
noted. A friend said the late pop singer Broery Marantika used
the breathing technique of a Koran reciter when he sang his
songs.

After this performance, Lia said, she would like to learn how
to sing traditional Javanese songs and dance the Javanese dances
intensively. The spirit of the Yogyakarta Palace continues to
encourage her to go deeper and deeper into Javanese culture.

On Sept. 24 and Sept. 25, 2002, Lia played the role of Tine
Havelaar in a performance of Gitawrta Saijah dan Adinda at the
Jakarta Art House International Festival (GKJIF) 2002, again with
S. Kardjono as the director.

The play is taken from a classic work by Multatuli (Douwes
Dekker) entitled Max Havelaar, a story about the plight of the
oppressed people of Lebak, Banten in 1856, a sampling of the
plight of the Indonesian people themselves today.

Beside Tine, she also played the role of a Dutch lady as the
landlady of Saijah. Lia intentionally assumed two roles at the
same time for a reason.

In her role as a Dutch lady, there were traditional Javanese
songs, while when she played the role of Tine, she was involved
only in ordinary dialogs.

Lia danced while singing traditional Javanese songs in
Indonesian with a Dutch accent, accompanied by gamelan and the
traditional Javanese music. It was like eating cheese wrapped in
a banana leaf.

"My parents saw the show on the first night and my Dutch
grandfather saw it the second night. Backstage, by grandfather
jokingly yelled at me, 'How dare you' in reaction to a dialog in
which I said 'I am ashamed to be Dutch'" Lia said, giggling.

S. Kardjono allowed Lia to assume two roles because he
believes Lia has the capacity for that. Besides, the two roles
are not too far apart in terms of character traits.

Lia has assumed roles of different character traits in various
drama performances.

She said, "These two roles were not as hard to assume as the
role of Sarpa Kenaka in (the previous) From the Country of Love
by Teater Tetas." In this role, Lia had to demonstrate the
personality side of Sarpa as a gentle, horrifying, lustful and
hypersexual person. Then she also had to do some fighting and
sing some contemporary songs.

As a sinetron (TV series) star, Lia has to manage her time
carefully. When she took part in the latest opera performance,
she was also doing some shooting in Rano Karno's Si Doel The
Schoolboy, the popular series which has catapulted her name.