MEDIATHEK

Opera Princess Saadong is a new opera based on old Malay legend, combination of Malaysian traditional Makyong, gamelan with European opera style and music ensemble using modern compositional method, multi-media and hybrid performance techniques; in 5 short Acts with 6 main casts, 8 singers and 12 musicians. Utilizing research materials entitled ‘To Identify the Melody, Form, Metric and Structure of Makyong Music through Modern Compositional Method and Perspective’, the materials are taken out from localize context and brought to a wider context of composition, especially Western contemporary music. It is an exploration into composing a cross-cultural context, examines and analyses non-Western music and demonstrates, through an operatic form, how those can be integrated and transformed into a contemporary musical language, interdisciplinary medium on traditional subject and transforming it to become cutting edge; negotiating between traditional and modernity; mediating multi-ideas. Our increasingly multicultural environment should be reflected in artworks created from a synthesis of different techniques and perspectives.  This project will treat both materials as equally important, rather than viewing Makyong as ‘exotic’ source material. It will retain some traditional ideas and transformed into new form. This enhance and develop further my ideas towards musical integration of two cultures and contribute to contemporary multiculturalism from a composition-based perspective.