FABLES, FANTASY AT NEW MUSIC FEST

The concept was cute enough. Five UCLA music faculty members would each create a music-theater piece based on a myth or fable: a sort of “Fairy Tale Theatre” for eggheads.

Unfortunately, for the New Music LA festival-goers who crammed into the stuffy little experimental theater next to Royce Hall Sunday night, the cuteness rapidly wore off--replaced by torpor.

The works ranged from silly and sophomoric (Paul Reale’s dormitory skit, “Uncle Sigmund Goes to the Opera”) to heavy-handed and dated (Annamaura Silverblatt and Elaine Barkin’s dreary, Grahamesque dance setting of “Demeter and Persephone”).

Most often, the manner of story-telling proved merely self-defeating. Mark Carlson, for instance, chose the Grimms’ little-known “Three Feathers,” but then proceeded to deliver an unintelligible and overscored mess for quintet and two singing/speaking storytellers (Kari Windingstad and Timothy Mussard). What was the fable about? Who knows?

Roger Bourland’s “Aesop the Peasant” likewise proved distracting. Again, a quintet and storyteller. This time, Sybil Hast told five fables in silence. Each time she got to the moral, however, the ensemble suddenly launched into some Stravinsky-ish noodling and all but drowned out Hast--and Aesop.

Paul des Marais’ “Orpheus” rescued the evening from total disaster, thanks to understated scoring for atmospheric piano (John Heggie), synthesizer (Thomas Bralley) and percussion (Jennifer Judkins), and to Patrick Stretch’s riveting reading of the familiar legend. Actor Timothy Tobias seemed expendable in the title role.

The tiny theater, utilized here for the first time, functioned well for the crisply played chamber music, but suffered sight-line problems when dancers Silverblatt and Cynthia Woll rolled around the floor, heavily emoting as Persephone and Demeter.