Mosaic of Humanity Comes to Light Steve Reich's Aural and Visual Kaleidoscope Touches on the Patriarch Abraham

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THE Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) likes to start its annual Next Wave Festival with an event that carries the arts in some new direction. This year it did itself proud.

"The Cave," a music-theater extravaganza by composer Steve Reich and video artist Beryl Korot, made for an involving theatrical experience while it brought out issues of religion and politics that rarely receive such thoughtful attention in the glitzy world of high-tech aesthetics. (The show's brief run at BAM concluded last month. A different version is on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art.)

The stage for "The Cave" was dominated by a three-level scaffold carrying five …