Many of the rich theatrical cultures of Indonesia have yet to receive adequate attention by scholars. This translation of The Incantation of Semar Smiles provides an introduction to one of these genres-tarling, performed primarily in north-coastal West Java. This musical melodrama, with book, lyrics, and music by Pepen Effendi and released by the audiocassette company Prima in 1994, represents a new development in the history of the theatrical form. Dialogue for all previous live stage productions and recordings is largely improvised and songs are stock. In contrast, Fendi's operetta of jilted love and magical revenge is almost completely prescripted and musically through-composed. Matthew Isaac Cohen is a cultural anthropologist who has conducted extensive fieldwork on theatrical cultures in Java, Indonesia. He is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at the International Institute for Asian Studies, the Netherlands, in the "Performing Arts of Asia: Tradition and Innovation" program and is working on a book on shadow puppet theatre in the Cirebon region. His "Barikan: A Ritual Drama for Shadow Puppet Theatre" is forthcoming from the Lontar Foundation.
Ajian Semar Mesem ( the Incantation Of Semar smiles ) is a musical drama for tarling, a popular operetta or musical melodramatic form of the cirebon region of north-coastal West Java , Indonesia. tarling Is hybrid theatre amalgamating exogenous cultural streams of influence. In its Stories, music, acting style and dramaturgy, it draws directly and directly from javanes folk clowning and social dancing traditions as well as nineteenth-century British, melodrama, television, Java's Classical tradition of gamelan ( Gong chime ) music, Portuguese, ballad singing, and Middle Eastern and Indian popular music. Tarling has much in common with other socalled syncretic theatres found around the postcolonial word such as.
