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.