MYTHOLOGY PERMEATES DANCE LANDSCAPE.

KALI
BEHNKE CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY
PERFORMANCE
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON
JUNE 1-4, 2000

The world premiere, presented by Seattle's On the Boards, of Kali, an experimental opera using stories and images from Hindu mythology, brought together a world renowned international cast. Kali is based on a libretto by the famed Indonesian writer Goenawan Mohamad, with music by Jarrad Powell and Tony Prabowo. It was produced via a series of collaborative exploratory workshops in Indonesia and the United States. The title comes from the Hindu goddess Kali, a figure in Hindu mythology who embodies torment and transformation.

Both the music and the movement for the opera were inventive. The piece opened with the musicians producing sounds with rocks that resembled a gurgling stream. Onstage, two sets of musical instruments flanked a black, angled platform. Fine-mesh panels made of lustrous filigree draped the stage. All the elements of the scenic and lighting design worked well together. The sidelights were positioned to project shadows on the walls to resemble the fighting armies that the singers spoke about. The operatic prose, delivered expertly by tenor John Duykers, mezzosoprano Kathryn Weld and vocalists Jessika Kenney and Musliwardinal, advanced the story about death, gods and slaughter.

Kali is rich with texture--from complicated rock sounds to the breathing of the dancers to the bowing of the gongs--all of which were considered part of the music structure.

Originally planned to be a collaborative effort with an Indonesian choreographer until supporting grant money fell through, Mary Sheldon Scott from Seattle saved the day and choreographed all the movement for the opera. Still, she was able to represent appropriate contemporary and traditional choreography for the piece.

The four dancers, Corinna Befort, Amy O'Neal, Juliet Waller Pruzan and bakira j.a.r., moved in utterly believable shapes, resembling birds as they skittered across the stage with hyperflexed upper bodies and super-arched feet, or clanspeople as they charged across the stage, then hovered in the wings in martial arts-like poses.

The dance was highly gestural (frantic, almost) and suggestive of primordial animals and landscapes. The atonal string pieces, played by American violist Stephanie Griffin as a member of the New Jakarta Ensemble, used a heavy downbeat creating eerie feelings.

Musical instruments consisted of gongs, drums, cylinders and bells--percussion that gave a disturbing off-balance amplified sound, as the two stage groupings played off each other, delivering many starts and stops. Clearly the big challenge was for the musicians and dancers to move together on each note, something the entire cast did very well.

Characterization by the musicians, vocalists and dancers was brilliant, with all performers showing great control and tremendous range (for the vocalists, from a high falsetto-moaning scream to a breathy, heady utterance)--the voices were strong, sustained and focused. The ending of the piece also was very powerful, with the performers appearing downstage, chanting "fire," representing the culmination of the profoundly disturbing narratives presented throughout.