Opera Jawa

Directed by Garin Nugroho

In Indonesian, with subtitles in English

When his wife falls under the spell of a powerful man, a poor pottery maker assembles an
army to recover what he has lost
Indonesia │ 2006 │ 120 minutes
TABLE OF CONTENTS


ONE PAGE SUMMARY: Opera Jawa

ABOUT FILMING OPERA JAWA AND THE DIRECTOR, GARIN NUGROHO

FILM AESTHETICS

NARRATIVE THEMES IN THE FILM

ABOUT INDONESIA
Statistics and map
References from the film
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©2007 The CW Film Foundation, Inc. All Rights Reserved.





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Opera Jawa

ONE PAGE SUMMARY:

Opera Jawa, 2006, Indonesia
Directed by Garin Nugroho
In Indonesian, with subtitles in English, 120 minutes
SYNOPSIS
The story told in Opera Jawa is based on the abduction of Sinta, from the Indonesian version of the ancient
Hindu epic Ramayana. Sinta is the wife of Prince Rama, the hero of the Ramayana, and the story recounts
his struggle against the forces of evil to gain Sinta’s release. In Opera Jawa, Rama becomes Setio, and Sinta
is his wife, Siti.

Setio and Siti are former dancers who now make and sell pottery in a poor Indonesian village. Business is
not good, and the marketplace is a target for street gangs; this reminds Setio of roles he and Siti once danced.
“Ever since our land became barren,” he sings, “We have been like Rama and Sinta . . . All that remains to us
is faithfulness, hope and love.” In the epic tale, Sinta is abducted by the evil Rahwana; in Setio’s own home,
the beautiful Siti is falling under the spell of the wealthy and powerful butcher, Ludiro.

Siti tries desperately to resist Ludiro’s advances, but he knows her weakness – she gave up dancing to marry
Setio, a choice she regrets. Ludiro tries everything to lure her, from invitations to dance, to incense and paths
lit with candles, but Siti resists. Finally, he fashions a dancer’s scarf that stretches like a carpet all the way to
her door. Once again, she escapes, but Setio believes he has lost Siti’s love. In despair and rage, he raises an
army of the poor and oppressed to fight the evil that has destroyed his life.

Opera Jawa was one of seven films commissioned by New Crowned Hope Festival Vienna 2006, celebrating
the 250th birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The filmmakers were challenged to draw their inspiration
from themes in Mozart’s late works: “magic and transformation, truth and reconciliation, and ceremonies for
the dead.” Garin Nugroho sets the theme of requiem – ceremonies for the dead – in the uniquely Indonesian
context of Javanese dance opera, blending visual arts, music, dance and cinema to tell a modern variation on
an old and familiar tale.

CHARACTERS
Setio The main character, a pottery maker
Siti Setio’s wife
Ludiro The butcher

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. After the fighting ends, the camera pans a
scorched battlefield, where fires still burn
among the corpses. The chorus sings,
“Cleverness becomes power / Prayers
become threats / Disempowerment becomes
anger / Strength becomes force.” What
cleverness becomes power in Opera Jawa?
Which prayers become threats?

2. The Hindu epic tale of Prince Rama and

Sinta ends happily – the Prince’s army
defeats the forces of evil and Sinta is freed.
Why do you think the filmmaker changed
the ending for Opera Jawa? How does the ending affect the story?

©2007 The CW Film Foundation, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Opera Jawa

ABOUT FILMING OPERA JAWA, AND THE DIRECTOR, GARIN NUGROHO

Excerpts from introduction by Simon Field, Curator of New Crowned Hope Festival Vienna, and co-
Executive Producer of Opera Jawa:

“Bearing in mind Peter’s [Sellars, Director of New Crowned Hope Festival Vienna] admonition that cinema is
perhaps the most influential art form of our time, Keith Griffiths and I have chosen to commission films for New
Crowned Hope from a range of international directors of different generations and from very different countries and
cultures, projects that reflect profoundly on aspects of our changing world.

“In the first instance, we chose to contribute

substantially to the making of six feature films by
directors from different corners of the world:
Bahman Ghobadi from Iranian Kurdistan,
Mahamat-Saleh Haroun from Chad, Tsai Ming-
Liang from Taiwan and Malaysia, Garin
Nugroho from Indonesia, Apichatpong
Weerasethakul from Thailand and, with her
feature debut, Paz Encina from Paraguay. All of
them proposed major projects that reflected to
varying degrees on, or that continued the spirit of,
the Mozartian themes of New Crowned Hope,
and which will take these themes in new
directions appropriate to our time. And as did
Mozart in music, these film-makers are seeking
new ways in which to describe the world, ways
that explore new possibilities for cinema and for life.”

Statement by Garin Nugroho about Opera Jawa:

“Opera Jawa is a musical film adaptation from the wayang story known as the Ramayana, a classical epic that is
very popular in Asia and as popular as the Mahabharata, particularly in countries influenced by Hinduism. This
film presents Javanese gamelan and choreography, in both contemporary and classical forms. It is a film explicitly
combining a Javanese opera with art installations based on the definition of the word of "sita" as cultivated soil, and
on blood as a motif of this epic's main character, Ravana [also spelled Rahwana].

“This is a requiem resulting from a new interpretation of the most famous character in Ramayana, Sita [also spelled
Sinta, Siti], who dies in a self-immolation rite at the end of the story. Sita is the wife of Rama, the handsomest and
most just king. His enemy is a giant king called Ravana. Ravana always wants to obtain Sita's love. Sita has herself
burned to prove her fidelity and sanctity to Rama. So, the story is a requiem for the significance of love and fidelity
which ends in death.

“This is a story describing classical / modern dilemmas lived on a daily basis. It is about life in a community that
exists, in a state of vulnerability, and yet is also a society full of greed. Two different sets of values are in common
conflicts today, namely the must-be-defended right of free will, and questions about virtuousness, fidelity, God, and
freedom which relate to a variety of forms of violence in themselves, from prohibitions to assassinations.”

Source: New Crowned Hope Festival Vienna, Film. URL: http://www.newcrownedhope.org/index.php?id=96&L=2

©2007 The CW Film Foundation, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Excerpts from Tom Redwood’s interview of Garin Nugroho for RealTime:

“Art is a medium for open dialogue. It is a public space for the meeting of different perspectives. Art can
break barriers between people and make them more human again. It can bring about a rebirth of human
feeling. That is art’s role.

“In Asia we have a more symbolic relationship with narrative than you do in the West . . . The character of
Rahwana is like a big rich country. He assumes he can just take what he wants. Rama, on the other hand, is
more of a traditional, religious type. He is at odds with economic forces. He doesn’t know how to develop
and becomes angry and possessive, which leads him to violence. The two males’ struggle over the female
character Sinta is also a struggle over earth. That’s what Sinta means in Javanese: ‘earth’.”

Source: Interview with Tom Redwood for RealTime, Issue #80, Aug-Sept 2008, pg. 29.

BIOGRAPHY
Garin Nugroho was born into an artistic family in Yogyakarta,
Indonesia, in 1961. He studied filmmaking at the Institut Kesenian
Jakarta. He has taught filmmaking at the Institut, made numerous
documentaries and two short dramas, and also worked as a film critic
for Indonesian newspapers before making his first feature film, Leaf
on a Pillow (1999). Nugroho is a leading filmmaker in Indonesia,
known for the uniqueness of each of his films, which include Birdman
Tale (2002), And the Moon Dances (1995), Tokyo (1998), and Of Love
and Eggs (2004). Opera Jawa is his ninth feature film.

©2007 The CW Film Foundation, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Opera Jawa

FILM AESTHETICS

Film is unique as an art form in its synthesis of visual arts, writing, drama, movement, and sound. The
following notes about film aesthetics and technique suggest some things to watch and listen for in viewing
Opera Jawa.

Opera Jawa is set as a Javanese dance opera, an entirely

Music and Sound
musical form in which singing and choreography are
Music can be used to intensify the action or
interwoven to advance the action and express the characters’
dialogue in a scene. At its best, music
feelings. The soundtrack is performed by a Javanese gamelan
combines with images to create an experience
orchestra, combining gongs, drums, reeds and strings with
beyond what either could create alone.
xylophone and metallophone instruments. More than sixty
songs and dance routines were composed for the film by
Natural sounds can add a dimension of reality
Indonesian artists. Some songs are structured with verse and
– or heighten the unreality of a scene. Off-
chorus, as in a song sung by the women following Setio’s
screen sounds, such as traffic noise or
wagon to market; some are more like dialogue between
gunshots – can heighten the drama, or
characters, with choreography to illustrate or emphasize their
suggest an off-screen space.
feelings. Some dances are performed with gamelan orchestra
only, in traditional Javanese form.

Art installations were created by Indonesian artists as stage sets

Composition of the Image for Opera Jawa. Color and symbols in the designs heighten the
Color and line; size and distance (long shot, impact of scenes as they unfold in these dramatic sets. One is
medium shot, close-up). The director frames Ludiro’s butcher shop, where bloody carcasses hang above a
an image using the elements of setting, stone floor set with models of human heads, some in bronze and
costume, colors, lighting and sound. The some in red wax candles. Another is a spiral wall in a clearing,
position and behavior of the actors are crucial made of halved coconut shells. Siti is lured to the clearing by
to the composition, as is the choice of fragrant incense; once in the center of the spiral, she is trapped
cameras and lenses, where they are placed by dancers under swirling life-size straw cones. In another
and how they move during the shot. forest clearing, the bright red dancer’s scarf – “as long as the
road of life” –becomes a streamer woven among the trees,
falling into curtains that hide Ludiro, and an elegant dancers’
studio.

Narrative Structure Javanese dance operas tell stories from ancient Hindu epics,
The narrative structure of the film establishes the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, which are widely known
the major themes in the story, answering the throughout Southeast Asia. Each culture adapts the stories to
question, “what is this story about?” The its own world view; as the storyteller sings in the opening
narrative structure in world cinema may scene of Opera Jawa, “Everyone wants to know what really
highlight events of everyday life, or the focus happened / But no two people ever agree on the whole truth.”
may be on several characters rather than an With this introduction, the filmmaker leads us to expect the
individual. The structure may be episodic, or unfamiliar from a very familiar tale.
circular rather than linear, and there may be a
lack of resolution at the end of the film. The storyteller provides the narration in some Javanese dance
opera, but in Opera Jawa, the storyteller becomes an actor in
the tale, collaborating with Ludiro as he tries to capture Siti’s
heart.

©2007 The CW Film Foundation, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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NARRATIVE THEMES IN THE FILM Opera Jawa

“What’s it like to be Indonesian?” asks filmmaker Garin Nugroho. “Film can let us discover what it’s really
like.”

Watch for scenes or events that correspond to a particular theme, making mental or written notes as to how
the theme unfolds in the film. Note whether the film developed the theme as expected, and if not, what
happened instead. Questions for each theme are designed to encourage discussion.

Temptation and Betrayal

1. Siti is pursued by three men in the guise of a serpent. At either end of the serpent are pointed straw hats
to hide the identities of the men beneath the cloth. She resists the serpent by pushing at the straw hat –
which she keeps. Why doesn’t she scream or run away? Why does she keep the straw hat?

2. After her husband leaves for the market, Siti dances with the straw hat, while the guardian locks the
doors and windows, singing in his awkward voice, “The more secure you feel the more care you must
take.” How would you describe Siti’s dance? What does the guardian mean by “the more secure
you feel the more care you must take”?

3. Siti wakes one rainy night feeling amorous. She caresses her husband, but he covers his face with his
shirt and dances awkwardly out into the rain. Why does Setio avoid his wife’s affection? When
Ludiro comes into the room, why doesn’t Siti force him to leave – or call for help?

4. One of the gamelan musicians explains that he needs Ludiro’s money and gifts, and he begs Siti to
accept Ludiro’s offer to dance. A few moments later, a dancer wafts the fragrance of incense through
the front door, enticing Siti to follow him into a trap. Why doesn’t Siti tell the musician “no”? Why
does she follow the dancer?
5. Drawn into the spiral in the forest, Siti at last realizes she is in danger. “I am undone,” she sings,
“Unable to tell right from wrong.” Why doesn’t Siti cry for help? Why does she think she is
“unable to tell right from wrong”?

The Uses of Power

6. The butcher sings of his power as he dances across the stone floor of his shop. A bloody carcass hangs
from the ceiling and molded human heads form a pattern on the floor. Why are there heads on the
floor? What are the heads made of? Why?
7. For all his power, Ludiro cannot win Siti’s heart. His mother tells him to “learn what pleases her / know
her mind.” How does Ludiro react to this advice? Why does his mother encourage him to seduce a
married woman?

8. Again Ludiro asks his mother for advice. “My heart desires only one woman,” he sings. “Am I being
punished? That I can possess her but cannot win her heart?” His mother sings, “Take advantage of
others / Focus your thoughts on yourself! / And soon – there will be nothing in your mind / Except the
will to dominate.” How would you explain his mother’s advice? How would focusing on himself
win Siti’s heart?

9. With his mother’s help, Ludiro creates a bright red dancer’s scarf that extends from his mother’s house,
through fields and woods, to Siti’s front door. When she sees it, Siti rushes outside, pushing aside the
guardian and jumping on her bicycle to follow the path of the scarf. What does the scarf mean to Siti?
To Ludiro? To Ludiro’s mother?

©2007 The CW Film Foundation, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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10. Ludiro prepares his troops for attack with a celebration of dancing and acrobatics. Meanwhile, the
protesters gather around Setio, who sings, “Our prayer will crush the evil one.” How would you
compare the two armies? Why are they fighting?

11. As the war ends, the camera pans the scorched battlefield, where fires still burn among the corpses. The
chorus sings, “Cleverness becomes power / Prayers become threats / Disempowerment becomes anger /
Strength becomes force.” What cleverness becomes power in Opera Jawa? Which prayers become
threats?

Love and Control

12. One night, Ludiro lures Siti by setting out a path of lotus candles on the floor in her house, into the
street, across a small brook and into his bedroom. She follows all the way to his bed, where she sits
down as if frozen. “I cannot move,” she sings, “The whisperings of my heart entrap me.” Why do you
think Ludiro used lotus candles to make the path? What are “the whisperings” of Siti’s heart?

13. Setio pours clay over Siti, singing, “My love for you is like my love for the earth.” Covered all over
with clay, Siti replies, “I’m not mere earth . . . I’m made as a human who can think!” Why does Setio
pour clay over his wife? Why does Siti allow him to do it?
14. “I miss the kiss of your lips which opens to your heart,” sings Setio, before he kills Siti and pulls her
heart out of her body. Holding it in his hands, Setio sings to the heart, “Scream! Speak!” Why do you
think Setio kills Siti? Why does he tell her heart to “scream! speak!”?

©2007 The CW Film Foundation, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Opera Jawa

PROFILE OF INDONESIA

SIZE: 17,508 islands totaling 741,100 square miles, the largest archipelago (chain of islands) on earth

POPULATION: 234.7 million (CIA, July 2007 estimate), living on 6,000 islands

Courtesy of The General Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin.

ETHNICITY: Javanese, 45%, Sundanese, 14%, Madurese, 7.5%, coastal Malays, 7.5%, other, 26%

LANGUAGES: Bahasa Indonesia (official, modified form of Malay), English, Dutch, local dialects, of which
the most widely-spoken is Javanese

RELIGIONS: Muslim, 88%, Protestant, 5%, Roman Catholic, 3%, Hindu, 2%, Buddhist, 1%, other, 1% (CIA,
1998)

CLIMATE: Indonesia straddles the equator; the climate is tropical – hot and humid – except in the highlands,
where temperatures are more moderate.

UNEMPLOYMENT RATE: 9.7% (2007 CIA estimate, with “employment” based on working more than 2
hours per week). Underemployment affects nearly a third of working Indonesians and more than half the
population lives in poverty.

NATURAL HAZARDS: There are more than 400 volcanoes of which some are active; severe drought;
flooding from seasonal typhoons; earthquakes and tsunamis. Aceh Province on the island of Sumatra was
hardest hit by the December 2004 tsunami.

©2007 The CW Film Foundation, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES: Forest fires in Indonesia are an annual environmental emergency for the entire
region. Often fires are intentionally set, to burn away forest land for cultivation of cash crops such as palm oil.
They quickly burn out of control, raging for months until the rainy season finally puts them out. In 2006, rains
expected in October did not arrive until November; besides threatening endangered wildlife and plant species
and burning tens of thousands of square miles of forest, these fires generate dense clouds of choking haze and
smog that overspread the entire region of Southeast Asia.

BACKGROUND: INDONESIA

Indonesia consists of more than 17,000 islands in the south Pacific, stretching 3,000 miles from Banda Aceh,
at the northwestern tip of Sumatra, to Jayapura, on Irian Jaya, the Indonesian portion of the island of New
Guinea. The history of these islands is a history of trade: in the rare spices nutmeg, mace, cloves and
cinnamon; in gold, and more recently, in oil and petroleum products.

During Roman times, the author Pliny wrote of cinnamon that arrived on rafts that had no sails, oars or
rudders – rafts pushed by strong winds across the south Pacific to the eastern coast of Africa. By the Middle
Ages, seafaring traders sailed to the tiny islands where cinnamon grew, along with even rarer treasures –
cloves, mace and especially nutmeg, which was prized not only as a spice for cooking, but for medicinal
properties it was thought to have. For centuries, nutmeg was the most valuable commodity on earth after
silver and gold, and it grew in only one place: the Spice Islands, now known as the Moluccas, a group of 9
islands about 1,000 miles east of Java, in the island chain of Indonesia.

Traders from China, India and the Middle East, as well as Portugal, England and The Netherlands found their
way to these remote tropical islands, bringing unique cultural, ethnic and religious influences. Indonesia’s
more than 230 million people speak more than 300 languages, and there are significant Hindu, Buddhist and
Christian populations, living alongside the nearly 88% of Indonesians who are Muslim. Most Indonesians
live on the largest islands, of Sumatra, Borneo (the Indonesian portion is Kalimantan), Java and Irian Jaya,
but distinct cultural groups live on Timor, Flores, Bali and other smaller islands as well.

From the arrival of the Dutch East India Company in the 16th century, the islands fell under the control of
colonial governments, predominantly the Dutch. In 1945, Indonesia declared its independence, and its first
leader, Sukarno, tried to centralize the government by establishing a common identity across the sprawling
island nation. He promoted a common language, Bahasa Indonesia, and five governing principles
(Pancasila): faith in God, representative democracy, national unity, humanitarianism and social justice. In
1967, Sukarno was forced out of power by one of his generals, Suharto, who ruled by military authority for
the next 30 years.

The Asian Crisis of 1997-1998 Under Suharto, Indonesia’s economy gained strength rapidly, behind its
leading exports of oil, coffee, tea, tobacco and rubber. He opened Indonesia to aid and investment from the
United States and other Western countries, in part by linking the currency to the dollar. Indonesians called
him the Father of Development for massive infrastructure projects, such as building thousands of schools and
training and hiring teachers. Suharto’s government improved the lives of rural Indonesians by investing in
small farms to expand production of rice, and he oversaw construction of a satellite telecommunications
network to provide a phone and television network across the islands.

By the 1990s, Indonesia was thought to be part of an Asian economic miracle, one of several countries that
were attractive to foreign lenders and investors who predicted prosperous years for the region. But with the
unexpected collapse of the Thai currency in 1997, economies of neighboring countries, including Indonesia,
saw their currencies fail amid rising prices, food and other product shortages, massive unemployment and
spreading poverty.

©2007 The CW Film Foundation, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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In Indonesia, unemployment increased by five times, from 4.5 million people in 1996 to 20 million in 1998,
as businesses failed and construction projects shut down. As much as half the population fell into poverty;
newspapers reported that some people were so desperate they planted crops on golf courses. Shortages in
food and such basic supplies as fertilizer led to street violence, which escalated into riots. Suharto fell from
power amid widespread protests by the poor and students, who charged his government with corruption,
human rights abuses, and amassing huge fortunes at public expense.

A Time of Unrest: the political setting for Opera Jawa The filmmaker hints that Opera Jawa could have
been set in the unrest of the 1960s that brought Suharto to power, or in 1998, amid the protests that led to his
overthrow. Both were periods “of extreme paradox,” he says, “this is what I tried to depict in this film . . .
civil unrest happens when the powerful oppress the powerless and this has happened many times in our
history.” (Source: Sawf News, “Musical Reveals Indonesia’s Heart of Darkness,” December 19, 2006. URL:
http://news.sawf.org/Entertainment/ 30619.aspx)

Since 1998, a series of elected leaders have tried to restore stability to a country where more than 60% of the
population lives on less than $2 per day (according to the United Nations Development Program, December
2005). In recent years Indonesia has suffered terrorist bombings in Bali; the tsunami in December 2004 that
killed hundreds of thousands of people and devastated northwestern Sumatra; frequent earthquakes, and
severe drought. Forest fires intended to clear land for farming have become an environmental disaster for
Southeast Asia, threatening precious forest, plant and animal species on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra,
and creating severe air pollution that affects the entire region.

The Island and Culture of Java: the physical setting for Opera Jawa Java is about the size of the state of
New York. Its population of 124 million people makes it one of the most densely populated places on earth.
Its name in Indonesian, Jawa, might have come from a Sanskrit word for “barley”, which was a popular crop
on the island when Indians first arrived more than 1,500 years ago, or from an even earlier word meaning
“home”. The island was formed by volcanic eruptions; 38 of its mountains are or have been active
volcanoes. The capital city of Jakarta, on the northern coast, was settled by explorers for the Dutch East
India Company, who first landed there in 1602.

Sailors from India reached the island of Java in the sixth century, introducing Hindu beliefs and traditions
that have had a profound impact on Javanese culture. Among their important contributions is the epic poem
Ramayana, a sacred text that conveys the teachings of Hindu sages through episodes in the life of Prince
Rama, the heroic ideal. Although Islam spread through Java in the 13th century, and Indian kingdoms were
supplanted by sultanates as early as 1475, the stories of Prince Rama have been told and retold throughout
Indonesia, and indeed Southeast Asia, down to the present day. The sultanates, who continue to rule the
fertile farmlands of central Java, have nurtured the rich cultural traditions that have grown in their courts for
more than 400 years. These traditions include Javanese dance drama and gamelan, two forms interwoven in
the film, Opera Jawa.

Javanese Dance Drama The Javanese tradition of dance drama is more than a thousand years old, first
appearing in the courts of Indian rulers in the 11th and 12th centuries. Performers often wore masks, and
dances were based on historical events. By the 18th century, dance drama was intertwined with the much
older wayang, shadow play, a performance by puppets who were thought to be filled with the spirits of
ancestors. In the new form, wayang wong, puppet roles were played by human dancers, enacting a story
from a sacred Hindu epic, the Mahabharata or Ramayana.

©2007 The CW Film Foundation, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Dance dramas were performed at court for ceremonies, holidays and special events, and over the years the
form became highly stylized. The familiar stories were told not only through dialogue, but in the gestures
and costumes of the dancers. Costume colors and designs varied for heroes and villains, with heroes wearing
blue or black, and villains wearing red. Even dance movements varied, with heroic figures using smaller,
more fluid movements while villains lifted their arms and legs high in harsh, threatening gestures.

In dance drama, the body is kept low, with

hand and foot positions equally important,
the movements of fingers and toes highly
articulated. The dance opera form adapted
for Opera Jawa is entirely sung, a fusion of
music, dance, drama and design.

Gamelan The music of Javanese courts is

performed by an orchestra called gamelan,
led by gongs and chimes, the rhythmic
melody of xylophone and metallophone,
flute, strings including violin and lute, bells
and drums. Gamelan instruments are
carefully tuned to a particular sonic
signature, giving the ensemble a unique
character. Gamelans perform at court
ceremonies and special events, setting the Traditional instruments – the Indonesian Embassy in Australia. Photograph by
Fir0002, December 2005. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
musical tone and context for the occasion.
Gamelans are inherited from one ruler to the next, as part of the pageantry of the court; this sense of heritage
invests gamelan musicians with a strong connection to their ancestors.

Except for the taller drums and gongs, the instruments are set on the floor, and the musicians sit on the floor
to play them. The tones of the gamelan vary from the deep resonance of the large gongs to the percussive
pop of the hammer against a muted bronze metallophone key.

Sarons of Gamelan Sekati, Yogyakarta. Photograph by Giovanni Sciarrino,

2004, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

©2007 The CW Film Foundation, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

BBC News / Country Profiles, Indonesia: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/country_profiles/1260544.stm

Maps of Indonesia: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/indonesia.html#country.html

http://worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/asia/id.htm

CIA The World Factbook: https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/id.html

The Economist, Indonesia: http://www.economist.com/countries/Indonesia/

Background, Indonesia: http://www.thingsasian.com/goto_article/article.697.html

http://www.duyfken.com/original/spice-islands.html
Websites:
Introduction to Indonesia, Geographica.com. URL: http://www.geographia.com/indonesia/
A Country Study: Indonesia, Library of Congress. URL: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/idtoc.html
Jakarta News. URL: http://www.jakartanews.com/
Sendratari Ramayana. URL: http://epic-ramayana.tripod.com/
The Ramayana. URL: http://www.hindunet.org/ramayana/discouse.htm
New Crowned Hope Festival Vienna, Film. URL: http://www.newcrownedhope.org/
index.php?id=96&L=2#
About Garin Nugroho and Opera Jawa:
Interview with Tom Redwood for RealTime Arts Magazine, Issue 80, Aug-Sept 2007. URL:
http://www.realtimearts.net/article.php?id=8636
Interview with Lisa Williams for Electric Sheep Magazine, Issue Twelve, August 31, 2007. URL:
http://www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk/features/2007/08/31/interview-with-garin-nugroho/
Graham, Duncan. “Garin Nugroho: Who’s Indonesian? The Quest for Identity.” In The Jakarta
Post, December 6, 2006. URL: http://indonesianow.blogspot.com/2006/12/garin-nugroho.html
Lee, Nathan. “Freak Folk: Opera Jawa is the Indonesian morality musical of the year.” In The
Village Voice, January 8, 2008. URL: http://www.villagevoice.com/film/0803,lee,78847,20.html
Webb, Cynthia. “Opera Jawa: Traditional mixed with contemporary.” In The Jakarta Post,
September 9, 2007. URL: http://www.javafred.net/rd_webb_9.htm
About Indonesia:
Bonner, Raymond. “The New Order.” In The New Yorker, Part 1 – June 6, 1988, Part 2 – June 13,
1988.
Ching, Frank. “Social Impact of the Regional Financial Crisis.” In The Asian Economic Crisis:
Policy Choices, Social Consequences and the Philippine Case, The Asia Society, February 1999.
URL: http://www.asiasociety.org/publications/update_crisis_ching.html
Krugman, Paul. “What Happened to Asia?” January 1998. URL: http://web.mit.edu/krugman/
www/DISINTER.html

©2007 The CW Film Foundation, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Opera Jawa

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©2007 The CW Film Foundation, Inc. All Rights Reserved.