LOS ANGELES FESTIVAL : AT JAPAN AMERICA : MULTIMEDIA ‘HUNGERS’ THAT SATISFIES

At last, technology has fulfilled some of its promises to art. Though probably misnamed, and certainly mishyped as an electronic opera, “Hungers” is a surpassing wonder of arty techno-flash.

How often in recent years have we been told that the latest computerized-digitized-synthesized marvel will lead us into the promised land of multimedia bliss? The higher the anticipation, the greater the disappointment has been.

Not so with “Hungers,” which received its premiere--forget the coarse, prototype sample previewed at CalArts last spring--Thursday evening at Japan America Theatre, courtesy of the Los Angeles Festival.

The program book bills “Hungers” simply as “A Collaboration by Ed Emshwiller and Morton Subotnick,” eschewing the term opera. And wisely so, for if this is opera, MTV is the Metropolitan.

“Hungers” is no laboratory monster either, which may be its greatest achievement. It is definitely a live theater piece, which surprisingly would work even less well than traditional opera or ballet as a home-video experience.

Emshwiller has created a subtle, sophisticated electronic visual set, on which live images--dancer Nanik Wenten’s fetal writhing, her eerily lit hands, singer Joan La Barbara’s face from different angles--are smoothly integrated. He exploits both the length and the depth of the stage, as the images leap from screen to screen in tightly focused patterns.

Subotnick has long been a leader in the computerized processing of live sound, and the “Hungers” score also needs both the depth and the tension of live performance, although it does not rely on spatial effects quite as much as the visuals do. His style here is a pop-oriented, neo-everything fusion: New Wave, Switched-On-Bach, Swingle Singers, etc.

The substance of the work, we read, is an expression of hungers “for food, security, acceptance, mother, sex, power.” Symbols for most of those desires are easily discerned, and there is a written program for those who need cues.

Caring greatly about all that, however, requires the constant, active stretching of a readily suggestible imagination. At least on a first experience, where spectacular style overwhelmed esoteric substance, “Hungers” might be better approached simply as an abstract phantasmagoria.

La Barbara sings the varied vocalises, ranging from melancholy modal plaints to vigorous scatting, with a haunted, hypnotized expression. Only in one section are there words, “I Want,” but La Barbara communicates easily without them.

She also controls the pace of the performance with air drums, sensors that cue the computer. At about 70 minutes, that performance is taut though unhurried. The whole is effectively shaped, both visually and musically rounded, with a clear sense of development.

“Hungers” enlists the strong participation of three amplified instrumentalists. Gaylord Mowrey and Amy Knoles rap out the frenetic “Celebration” sections on a keyboard and mallet instrument. Cellist Erica Duke has an extended passage largely to herself, part parody, part sincerely nostalgic New Romanticism.

Emshwiller and Subotnick also know the value of restraint. “Hungers” ends with the visual image of a woman’s face--which began the piece--with her mouth open in a silent song.

Aubrey Wilson is credited with the very effective lighting and stage design, with Bob Israel listed as a theatrical consultant. Performances continue tonight and Sunday.