‘Salam Harapan’ (Greeting of Hope)

Tue, March 19, 2019 / 07:08 pm

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Salam Harapan contains 12 songs and is ready for marketing. JP/Rosa Panggabean
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The Dialita members get ready for the launch of their second album. JP/Rosa Panggabean
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Dialita member Tuti Martojo walks backstage using a four-wheel walker. JP/Rosa Panggabean
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Dialita choir members warm up prior to the concert. JP/Rosa Panggabean
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The audience enters the 300 seat Goethe Haus theater. JP/Rosa Panggabean
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Young musicians assist in the production of Dialita’s second album. JP/Rosa Panggabean
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The Dialita choir was established in 2011 and its members comprise former political prisoners arrested following the attempted 1965 coup d’etat. JP/Rosa Panggabean
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Young singers Sita Nursanti (left), Bonita (second left), Endah Widiastuti (second right) and Kartika Jahja perform with Dialita. JP/Rosa Panggabean
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Spectators come to congratulate the Dialita members and ask for their autographs. JP/Rosa Panggabean

Rosa Panggabean

There was something different about the musical performance at the Goethe Haus in Menteng, Central Jakarta, that night. The concert – the launch of the second album from Dialita – was rather solemn.

The Dialita choir – which literally means above fifty years old – is made up of former political prisoners arrested following the attempted 1965 coup d’etat.

Their second album, titled Salam Harapan (Greeting of Hope), has 12 songs, which tell the stories on the prisoners hopes and prayers while imprisoned at the Bukit Duri penitentiary in Central Jakarta and the Plantungan penitentiary in Semarang, Central Java. The songs talk about being separated from their children, parents and relatives.

The songs were written around 50 years ago and were arranged to suit today’s taste, thanks to Rumah Bonita production house, which includes musicians and soloists Bonita, Endah Laras, Endah Widiastuti, Junior Soemantri, Kartika Jahja and Sita Nursanti. Music production head Petrus Briyanto Adi led the album’s production. [yan]