A Night to Forget

There is no single reason for the Titanic's continued grip on our collective imagination. It's not the scale of the disaster -- how many films have been made about the Philippine ferry that sank in 1987 with a loss of 1,500 lives? Nor is it -- to put it bluntly -- because so many white people perished. (Even most of the Titanic's passengers had probably forgotten the fire and sinking of the General Slocum, in New York's East River, at a cost of more than a thousand lives, in 1904.) But insofar as a century can be said to have optimism, the Titanic's sinking marked the end of the West's boundless faith in technology, and the beginning of the end of Anglo-Saxon myths about the West's natural superiority.

Perhaps at this point in time, when we've lost sight of the Titanic's metaphorical importance, a literal retelling of this tragedy is no longer tenable. That is why a work like Gavin Bryars' ghostly postmodern symphony, The Sinking of the Titanic, with its recurring fragments of voices, period music and groaning sound effects, touches us more deeply than albums of film and stage soundtracks inspired by the same event. The difference between listening to Bryar's work and hearing Titanic's score -- or the insipid theme song from James Cameron's movie -- is the difference between art and entertainment, between dreaming and chewing gum.

TITANIC: A New Musical Story and book by PETER STONE Music and lyrics by MAURY YESTON At the AHMANSON THEATER 135 N. Grand St. Through February 28