'The King's Witch' to be staged in New York
By Mehru Jaffer
JAKARTA (JP): The King's Witch is the fourth piece to emerge from the creative joining of the poetry of Goenawan Mohammad and the music of Tony Prabowo. The western classical music background of Tony coupled with Goenawan's use of lyrics to link present day experiences with incidents of the past provide not just excellent theater but an entire feast for thought.
The New Julliard Ensemble will stage the world premier of The King's Witch at New York's Lincoln Center on Nov. 21 when it is hoped that the concert will also raise awareness of the creative side of Indonesia.
Recent tension between Indonesia and America escalated as the embassy premises here were closed and voices demanding the U.S. ambassador be recalled from Jakarta were shrill.
However, Goenawan warns not to harbor high hopes for his simple, little operetta.
"It is unrealistic to think that one performance of The King's Witch can make a difference to Indo-American relations. What would really help is if Indonesian ministers educated themselves better in international relations and if American ambassadors here conducted themselves in a more diplomatic way."
Goenawan is convinced that the ordinary people of both countries continue to enjoy each other's culture despite controversies created at the government level. He does not believe that America is involved in any deliberate conspiracy to undermine Indonesia.
In fact Goenawan loathes conspiracy theories calling them a lazy man's way of defining problems faced in life. "Conspiracy theories are invented by people who do not bother to analyze things and find it easy to put all blame on somebody else," says Goenawan who looks forward to being in the audience when his libretto is staged in Jakarta next year.
Based on Calon Arang, the 12th century legend is about a Javanese woman accused of being a witch and who is destroyed by the king along with other villagers in Girah, a tiny place in the kingdom of east Java. As all legends go Calon Arang is just one more popular description of a world that existed at a point in time. That description may, or may not be true, but that is not the point. What excites Goenawan is to look at an incident from different angles and to allow everyone involved to give their side of the same story.
Goenawan being Goenawan and one who is not very comfortable at taking anything at face value has written a libretto for a musical theater performance in which he imagines what the story would have been if Calon Arang was allowed to tell it to the world?
Uncomfortable with the one-sided version of the traditional tale which he is convinced is told only from the king's point of view, Goenawan explores some of the other reasons that may have been responsible for the tragic end of Calon Arang. In the lyrical text, the dawn of the day after the village woman is killed is described as vermilion. What is the reason that the dawn that day is not pale? Is it because the unfortunate woman dared to protect her beautiful daughter from the king's greedy eye, tried to defy his plans of theft of her book with the magic formulas, and stood up proud against his mighty hand?
The problem with Goenawan is that he is incapable of allowing himself to freeze in awe before the sight of an expensive carpet laid out on the floor to impress him. He has always felt this added urge to bend down, pick up any poem in silk by its corner and look below, above and around and to contrast if he can the dirt beneath and beauty above before arriving at any conclusion, if at all.
"How do you know that this is the truth?" is a question he loves to throw back at anyone involved in conversation with Goenawan. He is also someone who seems to enjoy exploding myths. And in composer Tony, who communicates his ideas verbally with musicians at the New Jakarta Ensemble leaving them to interpret the idea in their own way before finalizing a score, Goenawan has found the perfect complement to his lyrical talents.
Goenawan finds the concept of the European classical, and contemporary operas ridiculous, especially all the visual glamour that is added to the music. He is unable to imagine himself creating a theatrical work in which people communicate entirely in songs and arias. He feels that words should not be translated into musical notes. The music should be composed independently and not linked to the words. As a consequence, his own simple libretto provides only a set of images, a certain mood, allowing the composer to treat the words more as elements of sound in his oral composition rather than messages wrapped in bundles of musical notes.
Tony agrees totally and every time the two work together the lyrics, music and choreography are created independently of each other, the form taking shape at a later stage.
The artistic courtship of the two went public with Panji Sepuh, a dance drama that was performed half a decade ago, not just in Indonesia, but also in Australia and South Korea. Since then the duo collaborated to stage At the Flea Market, and Kali, an experimental dance drama where Kali, the Hindu goddess examines her role as Death.
John McGlynn, feature editor of Silenced Voices, published by Manoa, the Pacific journal of international writing where the English translation of the poetic text of Calon Arang is found, feels that history, even fictional history, is a synthesis of different voices, not just one; and we should be suspicious if the only story is the one told by the officials. "Furthermore, in Indonesia, as in many places, traditional stories often end with the king winning, but this does not always have to be so. And even when they win, the powerful cannot silence the stories told by ordinary people." That is the point of The King's Witch says John.