Performer: David Lang

David Lang’s new opera the loser opened the Next Wave Festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on Wednesday night, but simply lacked theatricality.

David Lang’s curated series collected stories drew to a close with three works by John Cage, including his autobiographical lecture Indeterminacy of 1958, performed simultaneously, and the world première of Lang’s own mystery sonatas, the only work of his own to be programmed for the series.