A different kind of opera

Young Chang

Mikel Rouse’s artistic response to Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood” can

safely be called unique.

Whether you love it, hate it, understand it or don’t, you’ll walk away

with an emotional charge, the composer said. And that’s OK. He is the

first to say his work is not entertaining.

Called “Failing Kansas,” Rouse’s 80-minute multimedia opera will make

its West Coast premiere this weekend at the Orange County Performing Arts

Center as part of the Eclectic Orange Festival.

There is music. There is song. There are spoken words and segments of

film cut to fit the text. Like an opera, the piece works with a story

line, music and a universal theme.

Unlike an opera, there are no sopranos, no tenors, no altos and no

orchestra.

It’s one man interacting live, his voice multitracked on tape against

a video backdrop, coinciding with segments of music. Rouse uses a new

technique he calls “counterpoetry,” where multiple voices speak in strict

metric counterpoint.

Viewers might wonder whether the piece is, in fact, an opera, which is

what Rouse calls it. They might not. They might think it’s classical, or

they might think it’s rap. Reactions are up in the air, for now, but last

year’s crowd for Rouse’s West Coast premiere of the opera “Dennis

Cleveland” proved one thing:

“People didn’t know what to expect,” said Craddock Stropes, director

of public relations for the Philharmonic Society of Orange County, which

runs the festival. “It’s definitely a departure from what people expect

when they hear it’s an opera.”

This is one reason Rouse’s work is part of the Eclectic Orange

Festival, Stropes added. With the “Magic Flute,” Mozart’s musical

fairy-tale opera, showing through this weekend, “Failing Kansas” is an

interesting contrast.

“He’s trying to challenge what we think of as opera,” Stropes said.

“Convincing people to try looking at the arts in ways they haven’t

before.”

To Rouse, his piece is a new art form, much like Capote’s attempt to

create the nonfiction novel. With “In Cold Blood,” which explored the

1959 murder of the Clutter family of Holcolm, Kan., Capote reacted to the

killings. Rouse reacts with “Failing Kansas.”

“I was just very knocked out by the book,” said the Missouri native.

“Richard Brooks had already made a great film. I didn’t want to try to

retell the story or anything, but I wanted to try to evoke the power, the

spirituality.”

“Failing Kansas’ is the first in his multimedia trilogy. The second is

“Dennis Cleveland,” an opera with singers in the audience that uses a

live tape talk-show format. The third is “The End of Cinematics.”

In front of a mike, in a black suit with a black shirt with nothing in

his possession but a water bottle at his feet, Rouse ran through the nine

movements of “Failing Kansas” during rehearsal this week.

Video images designed by New York film artist Cliff Baldwin flashed

behind his still figure, accompanying his words. Scenes included the

beams and supports of a bridge, the rear view mirror in a car, a carwash

with a sign that announced “Only $6.95,” and people talking.

Most of the text was sung, some was said. It was compiled from

transcripts from the murder trial, Pentecostal hymns popular in the

Midwest, diary entries and songs written by Perry Smith, one of the

murderers who was also a musician.

The stage had four mikes, arranged symmetrically, and Rouse moved from

one to the next during different movements.

“It shows a different sense of my relation to the scene,” he said.

“And different characters are speaking from the mikes.”

“Failing Kansas” has already been seen on the East Coast. Reviews were

positive, especially in the Midwest, which is odd, Rouse said.

“It’s so much about the middle of America,” he said. “And I think

people respond to the emotional aspect of it, even if the technical end

of it can be overwhelming.”

FYI

* WHAT: Failing Kansas

* WHEN: 8 p.m. today and Saturday

* WHERE: Founders Hall, Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town

Center Drive, Costa Mesa

* COST: $18

* CALL: (949) 553-2422