Performance company inkBoat has joined forces with the seven-member music ensemble Nanos Operetta and vocalist Nils Frykdahl (shown left) to compose a multi-disciplinary opera entitled “Our Breath is as Thin as a Hummbingbird’s Spine.”
Starring Frykdahl of abstract prog-rock pioneers Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, the opera is performed in absurdist vignettes against a backdrop of surrealist imagery relating the strange fairytale of a man’s ill-fated love for a bird.
Directed by Ellen Sebastian Chang, a prominent figure in San Francisco’s musical theatre circles, this evening-length opera features the choreography of Shinichi Iova-Koga, the enigmatic co-founder of San Francisco-based inkBoat. Iova-Koga‘s experimental performance company is characterized by its unique amalgamation of traditional and experimental theater with physical theater and Japanese Butoh Dance.
World-renowned dancer Sten Rudstrøm will star in the opera alongside with Frykdahl, guitarist and fellow Butoh-enthusaist. Frykdahl’s bone-vibrating baritone — accompanied by the unconventional instrumentation of Nanos Operetta to narrate the Butoh-inspired choreography — should prove to be preposterously sublime.
Bending the boundaries of reality and challenging the conventions of opera, fairytale, and romance, “Our Breath is as Thin as a Hummbingbird’s Spine” premiered last weekend, July 13-14, receiving awe-struck reviews. The performance will continue for the following two weekends. Don’t miss your chance to see it at San Francisco’s ODC Theater this month.
“Our Breath is as Thin as a Hummingbird’s Spine”
July 13-14, 19-21, 26-28; 8pm
ODC Theater
3153 17th Street
San Francisco, CA, 94110
(415) 863-6606
http://odctheater.org
Sleepytime Gorilla Museum – “Helpless Corpse Enactment”