Mendi+Keith Obadike's multimedia opera The Sour Thunder was composed in 2002 on a commission by the Yale Cabaret, and first presented in a synchronized dual performance at the Cabaret and the university's Afro-American Cultural Center. A hybrid of spoken word, rap, altered acoustic instruments, electronic sounds, video imagery, and live performances linked via the Internet, this complicated work blends diverse cultural elements to tell a quasi-mythological, quasi-autobiographical tale of parallel personal discoveries in two alien environments. The Obadikes' ambitious use of technology and innovative presentation likely impressed the audience in live performance; but this recording of the opera leaves a dimmer impression of the composers' project, and one is left to imagine too much. Without the computer visuals, the movements of the actors, and the effect of using two performing spaces, the opera on disc has lost its physical impact and almost all of its avant-garde appeal. The CD only suggests a little of the theatrical experience, and seems more like a pleasant poetry reading interlaced with soft rap songs -- imaginative and evocative, but not as transformative as the artists intended. Bridge provides vivid sound quality, but the hot volume level should be substantially lowered for comfortable home listening.