SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Evan Ziporyn, A House in Bali: Soloists, Bang on a Can All-Stars, Gamelan Salukat, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Howard Gilman Opera House, 16.10.2010 (BH)

Music: Evan Ziporyn

Libretto: Paul Schick

Additional dialogue and lyrics: Evan Ziporyn

Director: Jay Scheib

Choreography: Kadek Dewi Aryani and I Nyoman Catra

Scenic design: Sara Brown

Lighting design: Peter Ksander

Costume design: Oana Botez-Ban

Sound design: Andrew Cotton

Video design: Jay Scheib and Noah Feehan / AKA

 

Cast:

Colin McPhee: Peter Tantsits

Penari (Dancer), Rantun, Camplung, Lèyak: Kadek Dewi Aryani

Penari, Ibu (Mother), Penyanyi Kekawin (Kekawin Singer): Desak Madé Suarti Laksmi

Kesyur, Bapak (Father), Kalèr, Sagami, Dutch Policeman: I Nyoman Catra

Walter Spies: Timur Bekbosunov

Margaret Mead: Anne Harley

Sampih: Nyoman Triyana Usadhi

 

 

That floating dividing line between eastern and western culture is often attractive to composers, and in A House in Bali, presented by the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival, clarinetist and composer Evan Ziporyn attempts to tell a story with a foot in both camps. Although ultimately I found the evening more frustrating than satisfying, Ziporyn created some compelling music and enlisted some exciting collaborators, all intricately directed by Jay Scheib at the Howard Gilman Opera House.

 

The story is derived from Colin McPhee’s book of the same title, which librettist Paul Schick has adapted along with texts by anthropologist Margaret Mead and artist Walter Spies. McPhee, a Canadian composer in Paris, visits Bali to immerse himself in gamelan music (paralleling Ziporyn’s own interest in the genre), and while there meets Spies and Mead, as well as some of the island’s inhabitants, particularly a young boy named Sampih. After the boy saved McPhee from drowning, the composer invited him into his household as a worker, and then gave him dance lessons.

 

Musically this production had many high points, with the renowned Bang on a Can All-Stars offering a Western-infused palette, coupled with the extraordinary musicians from Gamelan Salukat (Bali), directed by Dewa Ketut Alit. Both groups of musicians remained onstage during the 90-minute production, and when either group began to play, one’s attention was riveted. Bang on a Can’s electric physicality contrasted beautifully with the earthy metallics of the gamelan ensemble. The handsome physical production, however, added less impact than intended, despite the large back wall of the stage, flooded with projections of Balinese landscapes with intensely colored native flora. As the audience watched, the titular house was actually assembled in front of our eyes, while roving hand-held cameras videotaped activity inside and projected on a screen above—an intriguing technique that didn’t quite maintain interest over the entire span of the evening. After awhile I was wondering whether the piece might have been more effective presented more simply, in concert.

 

As McPhee, Peter Tantsis did his best to convey the composer’s mix of confidence in his work and bafflement at his surroundings, and was one of the standouts in an excellent cast with a mix of Western and Balinese singers and actors. But most of the characters seemed thinly outlined, rather than gaining in depth as the story progressed. The libretto, at least as communicated here, left more questions than answers at the end. (You know there’s a problem when reading the synopsis in the program provides more plot information than the actual performance.) And the production’s amplification did no one any favors, with the voices becoming constricted and shrill at high volume levels.

 

Bruce Hodges