There was a nearly-unanimous sense of relief in the audience as they returned to their seats after intermission that Saturday evening. Having just experienced Adeline Wong’s latest composition, the form-hybridising and difficult-to-untangle “Empunya yang beroleh Sita Dewi”, people where happy to return to music like Georges Bizet’s “Jeux d’enfants” -- which, just as its title promises, is a light and jape-filled serving that recalled rope-skipping, catching-catching, and dollhouse drama. In short, simple stuff: nothing too ambitious, nothing unexpected of a music-hall orchestra -- or its listeners.

“The MPO Meets Wayang Kulit” was part of the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra’s jubilations on its ten years of existence; “What better way to celebrate the anniversary of a young orchestra,” said principal conductor Matthias Bamert, “Than to play the music of the young?” The night continued with similar mischief: Gioachino Rossini’s snare drum-induced vistas in “La gazza ladra” (or “The Thieving Magpie”, an encore that Matthias quizzically dedicated to Malaysia on its 50th), and Ottorino Respighi’s fun“La Boutique Fantasque” (or “The Toy Shop”, a ballet whose tunes were adapted from Rossini).

Concertgoers emerged sated and vindicated. “It really was one big toy shop,” said one, uplifted. “What did he mean about the encore?” asked another, “That Malaysians are all thieves?”

Less assuredly discussed was Adeline’s Wayang Kulit fusion. “Its politics were problematic,” said a third, somewhat bothered.

Regardless of agenda, “Empunya yang beroleh Sita Dewi” is not without its pleasures. The piece evokes its chosen episode from Wayang’s epic cycle -- the kidnapping of Sita by the monster Ravana -- with pathos: Rama and Sita muse and worry, the oboe and serunai take turns hand-wringing with them; Ravana, lovesick, pleads that the god’s consort come away with him, and dalang Saupi bin Isa’s voice cries out, supplicant: “Aku sayang! Aku kasih! Aku cinta!”

Unfortunately, musical beauty -- or good intentions -- did not save the composition. In his introduction at the beginning of the evening, Eddin Khoo, founder of Pusaka, an organisation dedicated to preserving Kelantanese art forms such as Wayang Kulit, stressed that traditional shadow puppetry and the symphonic orchestra had a common ancestry: they were born out of flights of human imagination. This, it seemed, was reason enough to splice them.

A flight of fancy, when translated into artistic endeavour, is limited to material matters. Consider form. The orchestra is set squarely in the western musical tradition (even if some of its most enduring triumphs have been inspired by the Orient); generally, its vision is a shared one: that of a composer’s music, and a conductor’s interpretation of this music.

In the same way, the dalang is a conductor of his troupe; in typical performances, he interprets a single composition, the Ramayana. Easy enough.

Then again, not quite. That statement is misleading because it presupposes that the tradition can be viewed through the lens of formal performance. A night of Wayang -- or nights; “A full, proper performance takes more than a week,” noted a fourth audience member, down from Kelantan to watch the concert -- is an interactive storytelling event, not a concrete piece of art in the conventional sense. The dalang, besides being true to tradition, may choose to feed off his audience and his time, incorporating the former’s reactions and the latter’s trappings -- and, in doing so, blur the line between the artist and the viewing public. The batang pisang and white sheet of Wayang Kulit is less of barrier than a stage’s proscenium.

These things must surely have bothered a section of Saturday’s audience, as they heard Eddin sketch the difficulties practitioners on both sides had to overcome as they prepared for Adeline’s music. According to Eddin, the Kumpulan Wayang Kulit Anak Seri Baju Merah had to adapt to the “regimented discipline of the orchestra,” -- and “adapt” they did: dalang Saupi’s voice fell strictly in tempo; he appeared to speak only when the music let him, reduced as he was to yet another instrument in the chamber configuration. If the MPO was introduced to the spontaneity of Wayang Kulit, they did not stray further than that introduction. “They could have just replaced Saupi with a projection,” someone remarked. The shadow play was more lifeless than celluloid.

These days, inter-cross-cultural exchange thingies are so commonplace they’re rarely major landmarks, yet frequency doesn’t mean we’ve gotten any better at doing it right. Creative work is free to cut and paste; hybridisation lets discourse in the arts retain its vigour. But to have the Kumpulan Wayang Kulit Anak Seri Baju Merah -- yet take away the very elements that make Wayang, Wayang -- is, at the very least, missing the point. It would be like crediting Matthias as conductor, putting him onstage, and not letting him conduct.

Adeline, in interview, said that the process was a challenge, “as the Wayang troupe don’t read notes,” -- and, while the composer herself lead the musicians in the group, one detected that the shadow puppeteer and his fellows got less than their due because of this “disadvantage”. One tried to make one’s peace. It was, after all, an orchestra performance, and the Dewan Filharmonik PETRONAS isn’t, as it were -- god forbid! -- the Far East.

As the players stood up to take their ovation, their quaint costumes contrasted with the coattail regalia of the musicians. Dalang Saupi was smiling, but not clapping, and an audience member pointed this out. “Senyap aje,” he said, and wondered what the shadow puppeteer was thinking.

~~~

Zedeck Siew writes for Kakiseni.

“The MPO Meets Wayang Kulit”, and Adeline Wong’s “Empunya yang beroleh Sita Dewi”, was performed from August 31st to September 2nd, 2007, at the Dewan Filharmonik PETRONAS, and featured the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra and the Kumpulan Wayang Kulit Anak Seri Baju Merah.

The frontpage photograph of this article is of the late Pak Dollah Baju Merah, master dalang, and is courtesy of Fahmi Fadzil.