ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the complex interplay between Balinese characters and the protagonist of the piece, Canadian composer Colin McPhee, using some historical and analytical examples alongside details of the upcoming premiere production. The first musical theme in Ziporyn's opera borrows directly from a piano composition by McPhee called Kinesis written in New York in 1930, after McPhee had heard the Odeon 78rpm recordings, but before his first visit to Bali. Three days after McPhee left Bali for the last time, Walter Spies was arrested by the Dutch authorities in Indonesia, for, as the records indicate, 'homosexual activities'. Sampih continued to be trained in dance after McPhee's departure from Bali, and he is well known among dancers. McPhee's own book, A House in Bali, is a cautionary tale to warn against any production striving toward a simplified cultural mixing-pot paradigm, a musical, dramatic, or choreographic melange that fails miserably in telling the actual story.
