Night Vision: A New Third to First World Vampyre Opera
Source: NewYorkCitySearch.com

What does it mean when the title pours forth a show's entire yarn in a lengthy gush of narrative? Well, that depends. So, more importantly, is this metaphorical exuberance reason enough to be curious when met with such enticing allegorical trappings? Absolutely—if it's the highly conceptual style and musicianship of Fred Ho, who, in his new opera, "Night Vision," offers a funky, clunky tale as audacious as the title suggests.

Imagine yourself stumbling into one of New York's hippest nightclubs: Blinding strobe-lights flash in your eyes, drum and bass music pumps through your veins and enigmatic video imagery holds you captive to its full three-dimensional effect. Welcome to "Night Vision," a "neo-mythical" jazz-opera which aims to explore the relative evils of a postmodern, media-crazed culture with the atmospheric, surging vitality of a video game.

At the heart of this multimedia, multi-themed storyline is the Foxy Brown-fine Ajilinna id-Dibayih, Vampyre and Nubian warrior—played by Daphne Gaines with a Grace Jones sense of the exotic and the kick-ass agility of Laura Croft of TombRaider fame. Born some 2000 years ago, Ajilinna has acquired a second heart from the throat of a centurion. This possession has given her two major vampire curses: eternal life and "night vision." She also possesses the hottest voice that the modern-day pop music industry has ever adored. This catapults her to a feverishly worshipful status. And this is only the first five minutes. A hyped, unwieldy fable, "Night Vision" becomes more challenging to the senses with each calculated move.

With the aid of her former slave and "Spin Doctor," (Peter McCabe, a diluted Eric Bogosian-like figure who considers himself the show's driving force) Ajilinna "spins" through time, crafting and concealing her persona among a plethora of corrupted, evil figures while her cohort fans the paparazzi. Clumsy text and lyrics by Ruth Margraff find Ajilinna ruminating on her media-hyped celebrity and Age of Aquarius existence with a "sound-bite" passion. However, the text fails to establish a real emotional through line. This failing leaves the viewer only voyeuristically fascinated with this Nubian woman's journey or, worse, dismissive of the shifting perceptions of her identity.

In all fairness, many of the lyrics are inaudible because of less-than-subtle music levels blasted out of an imperfect sound system. Clarity and continuity are further undermined by handheld mikes used poorly in spoken-word exchanges. Singing voices range from mediocre to unbearable—except Gaines', which was durable. Composer Ho, a Chinese-American baritone saxophonist, brings as always, a charismatic musical fervor to his fusion-inspired style of Afro-Asian jazz. His most inventive moments are the overlapping tribal dances with their gospel-nuanced rhythms propelling life into some otherwise lethargic staging. Despite the pulp fiction action that director Tim Maner has orchestrated, this "Night Vision" needs reworking and luminosity. —Pamela S. Booker