By KER MUNTHIT
Associated Press Writer
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- When the Cambodian composer Him Sophy saw his first Broadway musical six years ago, he was so captivated he went back to see it again.
The show was "Rent," the long-running rock opera about struggling artists in New York City. What struck the Cambodian maestro was the musical genre, which featured a five-member rock band right on the stage.
Inspired, the Russian-trained Him Sophy went home and started work on Cambodia's first rock opera.
"Where Elephants Weep" features a 10-person band that fuses the sounds of an electric guitar, electronic drums and keyboards with traditional Cambodian instruments like buffalo horns, bamboo flutes, gongs and the chapei, a long-neck lute with two nylon strings.
"This is an East-meets-West blend," Him Sophy, 44, who earned a doctorate in musicology at Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, said during a rehearsal at a makeshift studio in a Phnom Penh apartment.
The story is a modern take on "Tum Teav," the Cambodian version of "Romeo and Juliet."
It follows Sam, a Cambodian-American who returns home after Cambodia's civil war to trace his roots. In Phnom Penh, he meets and falls in love with Bopha, a karaoke singer, said Catherine Filloux, the opera's librettist.
A buffalo horn, traditionally used by Cambodians to call elephants, is the symbol of their romance. A memento from Bopha, it also reminds Sam of his father, who played the instrument before he was killed during the Khmer Rouge era in the late 1970s, said Filloux, in an e-mail from New York.
"We are creating a hybrid, a piece of music and theater that has never been seen," said Filloux, a playwright who has written four plays about Cambodia.
She described Him Sophy as a "distinguished musician and composer" who speaks French, English, Russian and Vietnamese. After surviving the brutality of the Pol Pot regime, studying music in Moscow for 13 years and then traveling to America, this is the latest phase in "an amazing journey" for the Cambodian composer, she said.
The opera is being sponsored by Cambodian Living Arts, or CLA, a project of Boston-based nonprofit group World Education that seeks to revive traditional Cambodian performing arts and inspire contemporary artistic expression among Cambodians.
The opera will preview from April 27-29 at Lowell High School in Massachusetts, chosen because Lowell is home to a sizable community of Cambodian refugees.
The opera's world premier is scheduled to be held in Cambodia at the end of the year or in early 2008, said Charley Todd, a co-president of the CLA's governing board.
The opera's American connection was established in 2001 when Him Sophy was visiting the United States and met John Burt, the opera's producer, who was looking for a Cambodian composer to write music for the opera.
While exploring directions for the opera, Him Sophy turned to Broadway. Burt took him to see several shows in 2001, including Andrew Lloyd Webber's "The Phantom of the Opera" and Jonathan Larsen's "Rent," which he watched twice, he said.
The musical style of "Rent" gave him the idea of spotlighting the music itself on stage but using contemporary and traditional instruments, he said, adding that final details of the staging were still being worked out.
After several years of work, music rehearsals began last October in Cambodia. Finding qualified actors in Cambodia proved difficult, so organizers turned to Asian-American actors in the United States, Him Sophy said.
The band will spend a month rehearsing with the cast in Lowell before the preview.
Todd said the initial reaction in Lowell among the Cambodian-American community was skepticism.
"Initially a lot of people thought it was, frankly, kind of a crazy idea," Todd said.
But after seeing a band rehearsal in Cambodia last year, "they came out and said 'Oh, now I get it,"' said Todd, who describes the music as "a cross-cultural baby being born."
In a country where traditional musicians are struggling to survive amid the influx of Western culture, especially mainstream pop music, he said he hopes the opera will provide new ideas and open new artistic possibilities.
Many of the band's members said they, too, had trouble at first embracing the idea of a Cambodian rock opera.
"I found the idea to be quite bizarre," said 20-year-old Meas Sokun, a ponytailed keyboarder who makes a living playing in pop concerts for a local television station. "But I'm very proud to be part of it now."
___
On the Net:
Cambodian Living Arts: http://www.cambodianlivingarts.org/
World Education: http://www.worlded.org
The show was "Rent," the long-running rock opera about struggling artists in New York City. What struck the Cambodian maestro was the musical genre, which featured a five-member rock band right on the stage.
Inspired, the Russian-trained Him Sophy went home and started work on Cambodia's first rock opera.
"Where Elephants Weep" features a 10-person band that fuses the sounds of an electric guitar, electronic drums and keyboards with traditional Cambodian instruments like buffalo horns, bamboo flutes, gongs and the chapei, a long-neck lute with two nylon strings.
"This is an East-meets-West blend," Him Sophy, 44, who earned a doctorate in musicology at Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, said during a rehearsal at a makeshift studio in a Phnom Penh apartment.
The story is a modern take on "Tum Teav," the Cambodian version of "Romeo and Juliet."
It follows Sam, a Cambodian-American who returns home after Cambodia's civil war to trace his roots. In Phnom Penh, he meets and falls in love with Bopha, a karaoke singer, said Catherine Filloux, the opera's librettist.
A buffalo horn, traditionally used by Cambodians to call elephants, is the symbol of their romance. A memento from Bopha, it also reminds Sam of his father, who played the instrument before he was killed during the Khmer Rouge era in the late 1970s, said Filloux, in an e-mail from New York.
"We are creating a hybrid, a piece of music and theater that has never been seen," said Filloux, a playwright who has written four plays about Cambodia.
She described Him Sophy as a "distinguished musician and composer" who speaks French, English, Russian and Vietnamese. After surviving the brutality of the Pol Pot regime, studying music in Moscow for 13 years and then traveling to America, this is the latest phase in "an amazing journey" for the Cambodian composer, she said.
The opera is being sponsored by Cambodian Living Arts, or CLA, a project of Boston-based nonprofit group World Education that seeks to revive traditional Cambodian performing arts and inspire contemporary artistic expression among Cambodians.
The opera will preview from April 27-29 at Lowell High School in Massachusetts, chosen because Lowell is home to a sizable community of Cambodian refugees.
The opera's world premier is scheduled to be held in Cambodia at the end of the year or in early 2008, said Charley Todd, a co-president of the CLA's governing board.
The opera's American connection was established in 2001 when Him Sophy was visiting the United States and met John Burt, the opera's producer, who was looking for a Cambodian composer to write music for the opera.
While exploring directions for the opera, Him Sophy turned to Broadway. Burt took him to see several shows in 2001, including Andrew Lloyd Webber's "The Phantom of the Opera" and Jonathan Larsen's "Rent," which he watched twice, he said.
The musical style of "Rent" gave him the idea of spotlighting the music itself on stage but using contemporary and traditional instruments, he said, adding that final details of the staging were still being worked out.
After several years of work, music rehearsals began last October in Cambodia. Finding qualified actors in Cambodia proved difficult, so organizers turned to Asian-American actors in the United States, Him Sophy said.
The band will spend a month rehearsing with the cast in Lowell before the preview.
Todd said the initial reaction in Lowell among the Cambodian-American community was skepticism.
"Initially a lot of people thought it was, frankly, kind of a crazy idea," Todd said.
But after seeing a band rehearsal in Cambodia last year, "they came out and said 'Oh, now I get it,"' said Todd, who describes the music as "a cross-cultural baby being born."
In a country where traditional musicians are struggling to survive amid the influx of Western culture, especially mainstream pop music, he said he hopes the opera will provide new ideas and open new artistic possibilities.
Many of the band's members said they, too, had trouble at first embracing the idea of a Cambodian rock opera.
"I found the idea to be quite bizarre," said 20-year-old Meas Sokun, a ponytailed keyboarder who makes a living playing in pop concerts for a local television station. "But I'm very proud to be part of it now."
___
On the Net:
Cambodian Living Arts: http://www.cambodianlivingarts.org/
World Education: http://www.worlded.org
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