Island’s News Updates

The Ubud Palace, where the cultural exchange between Balinese and Western artists first began in the 1930s, has turned host for a new opera that deals with that very subject – the world premiere of Evan Ziporyn’s cross-cultural opera A House in Bali.

This new work, which combines Western music with the gamelan and opera singers with arja (Balinese traditional opera) artists, and which features some of the finest singers and musicians from Bali and around the world, brings together Balinese and Western cultures in a way never imagined by the characters it portrays: composer Colin McPhee, artist Walter Spies and kebyar dancer I Sampih. The two free performances will take place at 8 p.m. on June 26 and 27, in the very location where Walter Spies first stayed in Bali, the Puri Saraswati in central Ubud. Read the rest of this entry …