MUSIC REVIEW : ‘Micro Operas’ at the Japan America Theater

The local Collage Ensemble justifies its multimedia opera offerings by claiming to go back to the original definition of the word opera as a union of works .

But the most moving moment of its diffuse, skimpily staged four-part “Kodomo Micro Operas” Saturday at the Japan America Theater was one virtually devoid of extra gadgetry and special effects. And it could have taken place in a straight play, as well as an opera.

A character called the Disillusioned Soothsayer--company artistic director Alan H. Nakagawa--recalls an incident at a school Christmas pageant when he told his buddy that he and his family pray at a shrine every morning rather than attend a Christian church--and his friend repudiated him.

“My buddy said I was going to hell . . . forever and forever,” he repeats, still stunned and puzzled.

The moment became an emblem of cultures in collision, of course, which the multi-ethnic company can explore with sensitivity and strength. But it also evoked all kinds of incidents in which people are rejected because of “differences.” The speech--at the end of the “Out of Prayer Micro Opera”--was the moment that most resonated and rang true during the evening.

Otherwise, this hourlong work consisted of some clever TV sitcom skits and sections of abstruse mythologizing. The clever skits included office workers fidgeting and freaking out while a televised instructor droned on about the hearing process and a receptionist paged a list of doctors that included Dr. Ruth and Dr. Seuss.

The abstruse sections ranged from the lyric , tai chi-like circular movements for three dancers in the opening “Secular Micro Opera” to the slow-motion portentous walk-abouts in the final “Storyteller Micro Opera.”

However, none of the direction or movement was so telling that, without the program, you could know that a character was supposed to be, say, the “Spirit of Aborted Children” or that specific social concerns were on the minds of the artists of the ensemble.

Steve Roden composed the New Age music for the opening section; Nakagawa composed the rock scores for the other three parts.