Our Breath is as Thin as a Hummingbird's Spine

IS THE HIGHLY ANTICIPATED COLLABORATION between acclaimed physical theater company inkBoat, new music ensemble Nanos Operetta, and vocalist Nils Frykdahl. An evening-length multi-disciplinary opera directed by Ellen Sebastian Chang, Our Breath... is a kaleidoscope of images, shifting terrains, and absurdist vignettes, moving from the grotesque to the sentimental, the preposterous to the beautiful. Framed by the magical realist tradition and drawing its initial concept of "transformation" from a children's fairytale, this evening-length work features dancer/choreographer Shinichi Iova-Koga, dancer/actor Sten Rudstrøm and vocalist Nils Frykdahl, accompanied by the 7-piece Nanos Operetta ensemble's intricately detailed, frenetic and beautiful live score, in a surrealistic landscape created by award-winning designers Allen Willner and Mary Lois Hare. Our Breath... explores the world through the physical and figurative perspectives of a man in an amorous relationship with a bird, a deeply true and impossible love tampered by size, broken by loss, and distorted by unconsummated desire. Two hearts caged in ribs that cannot meet; one feathered for flight, the other bound to earth.

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Working in fractured, filmic, delicate and decayed environments, inkBoat's performance style is a hybrid of traditional and experimental dance and theatre forms woven within physical theatre and Japanese butoh.

inkBoat.org

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Baritone Nils Frykdahl, gifted with a commanding stage presence and an extraordinary voice, equally suited for death metal as for modern opera, is best known for his work with seminal avant-rock groups Sleepytime Gorilla Museum and Faun Fables.

sleepytimegorillamuseum.com

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Utilizing unconventional instrumentation and a wide array of concert, ethnic, and found percussion, Nanos Operetta incorporates elements of music from South East Asia and Eastern Europe, modern chamber, minimalism, and film and cartoon music.

nanosoperetta.com

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Staging, Performance, & Choreography by
Shinichi Iova-Koga & Sten Rudstrøm

Vocals Performed by
Nils Frykdahl

Music Composed and Performed by
Nanos Operetta

Libretto & Concept: Ali Tabatabai
Text: Sten Rudstrøm

Direction & Dramaturgy: Ellen Sebastian Chang
Set Design: Mary Lois Hare & Allen Willner
Lighting Design: Allen Willner

Produced by Ali Tabatabai