MUSIC AND DANCE REVIEWS : ‘THE SAND HILLS’

Death when it falls as a curtain between lovers is a tragedy that has borne legend after story after opera, but somehow it takes on new meanings for each generation.

Perhaps that is why the premiere of Hiram Titus’ one-act opera “The Sand Hills,” Saturday night at Bovard Auditorium at USC, survived the jittery and hasty performance it was given by the commissioner of the work, the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, and wound up generating a sizable emotional charge.

Based on a Amerindian (Blackfoot, actually) legend that bears no small resemblance to the Greeks’ Orpheus, the opera follows the trials of a young warrior who seeks reunion with his recently dead wife. He finally finds her in the spirit realm, only to lose her--and then again to be reunited with her as a berdache , a man who bears the spirit of a woman.

Musically, the opera gives emphatic nods toward Vaughan Williams and Walton, with angular vocal lines that are neither ingratiating nor inventive. But the swells and eddies of the mostly electronic score carry the work along and sometimes propel it into genuine climaxes.

The story is aptly chosen--the berdache concept of male femininity has been too long ignored by music and literature--but the company’s hurried execution kept getting in the way. The warrior’s trials were not felt, it seemed. And, though the production made much of what must have been a shoestring budget, David Parrish’s staging of the singers reinforced only the environmental--desert, mountains, forest--and not the emotional currents of the story.

Among the singers, Paul Attinello, as the leader of the spirits, was most musical, and seemed least stressed by the awkward vocal lines. Dennis Amick tried gamely to keep up with the cruel demands of the young warrior’s music, but often fell short. Mischa Schutt handled the spoken chores of the Narrator with skill and authority. Jerry Carlson conducted crisply and with great sympathy for his singers.