Rakesh Mathur
ENGLAND, June 28, 2005: Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the arts is 58 years old. Established by the renowned English composer, Benjamin Britten, in the beautiful natural surroundings of Suffolk, the festival has traditionally served the Western music industry and its audience in the most high brow way. A group of international journalists were invited recently to the festival to witness its growth and expansion. The most remarkable experiment that was carried out this year has something to do with the Hinduism.
For the first time in its history, a non-Western production of Ramayana was presented to a discerning audience by the South Bank Gamelan players. The gamelan is the ensemble of percussion instruments on which the traditional music of Java and Bali is played. A complete Javanese court style gamelan comprises two sets of instruments. In Java, gamelan often accompanies poetry, dance and theatre such as dance drama, and shadow puppet plays.
At Aldeburgh festival, the performance of Ramayana brought much needed relief to the festival. It attracted younger audience and in a way, helped created a new audience. The average age of the audience of the Aldeburgh festival is 60+ years and they seem to have set notions about the Western classical and new music. But this year, a performance of Ramayana showed a different dimension of the multicultural Britain.
According to Jonathan Reekie, the Chief Executive of the festival, the last episode of Ramayana, “The Final Battle” was an important program in the festival’s educational efforts. “Its popularity went beyond all our expectations,” he said. Jonathan Reekie used to visit India when his father worked for the British High Commission in New Delhi. He learnt a great deal about the Indian culture and religion there. It is hoped that under his leadership, Aldeburgh festival would include more programs related to the Hindu religion and history.