Word: galigo
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
When a theater production bills itself as an epic, it's usually nothing more than a publicist's bombast. Yet when Robert Wilson's I La Galigo premieres in Singapore on March 12, it will be literally true: the four-hour spectacle of song and dance, mantra and martial arts is based upon a classic of Indonesian literature, an epic poem almost unknown outside the archipelago until now. The poem, also called I La Galigo, survives in thousands of fragmentary manuscripts and was written in an archaic Indonesian language that maybe no more than 50 people today are able...
...Galigo is vastly complicated, a pageant spanning seven generations set to a haunting score by the Indonesian composer Rahayu Supanggah. In Singapore, the show will have lavish sets and costumes constructed from fine Javanese batik. Yet for Wilson, the key to any successful production lies not in its music or props but in the structure of the show, whether it be an opera starring Jessye Norman, an evening of rock theater with Lou Reed?or the staging of an ancient Bugis epic. "Paris is a beautiful city because it has a beautiful structure," he says, explaining that a harmonious overall...
...production has ignited enormous interest in Indonesia's intellectual circles. In February, the influential Bali-based arts journal Latitudes devoted a special issue to I La Galigo?the poem and the show. Indonesian actress and icon Christine Hakim is filming a documentary about the production. Yet it is unclear whether the show will ever be performed in its home country. No theater in Indonesia has the technical resources to stage it, and the cost of renting and hauling the necessary machinery even to Jakarta is prohibitive in a nation that spends very little on culture...