Splendid vocals of SPH's 'The Sound of Music'

Splendid vocals of SPH's 'The Sound of Music'

Evi Mariani
The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music was the
perfect choice for the recent Sekolah Pelita Harapan (SPH)
performance.

Full of beautiful songs that are familiar to Indonesian
audiences the school could hardly go wrong, particularly
considering the focus of SPH's performance was the vocals and the
orchestra.

Because almost all of SPH's performers had beautiful voices --
supported by high sound quality, thanks to sound designer Murray
Keidge, who came all the way from Australia -- the audience could
overlook shortcomings in other areas.

Presumably, you have all watched The Sound of Music more than
once, so let us skip the story.

The performance opened with a choir of nuns who sang in
perfect harmony. The song "How do you solve a problem like
Maria?" was performed by three students.

Playing the Reverend Mother, Lisa Adiputra, 16, showed
potential of someday being a great soprano, while shy Kendal
Metcalfe, 15, who apart from her minor role as a nun was also
cast in the leading role of Maria Reiner in the Saturday matinee
show, pleased the audience with her lilting voice.

Sanjana Kush Mahtani, 15, who played Maria for three
consecutive nights from Thursday to Saturday, deserved the
leading role because of her vocal quality and her passionate
acting.

A preschooler at SPH, Audrey Jemima Ruth, 5, demonstrated the
most natural acting ability on Thursday night. She managed to
become the center of attention with her enthusiastic dance and
movement as well as her bashfully cute vocals.

Stanley Kurnia, 17, the author of the recently launched
English-language novel The Corruption , deserves special mention
for his fresh take on the role of George von Trapp's friend Max
Detweiler, despite his average voice.

In general, all performers, foreigners and Indonesians alike,
were articulate English speakers.

However, although they had rehearsed for
seven months -- and every day after school for the last five
months -- the quality of the students' acting was varied.

Leading actor Brandon Wirakesuma, who played Austrian navy
officer Captain George von Trapp for Thursday and Saturday noon,
appeared nervous on stage. He seemed an awkward pair to the
enthusiastic and confident Sanjana.

There were several disconcertingly quiet moments and instances
when props were annoyingly hauled or dragged on stage.

The choreography was also lifeless making the large stage at
Teater Tanah Airku at Taman Mini Indonesia Indah appear empty and
oversized at times.

However, the orchestra, conducted by Therese Wirakesuma, was
consistently good. The SPH musicians were assisted by some
musicians from the University of Pelita Harapan and some
professional musicians from Yogyakarta.

Despite some shortcomings, the audience left the theater
content, while the performers themselves seemed to have a good
time on stage, despite their understandable nervousness.