House of Tudor
Silke Tudor
February 11, 2004

The first installment of "3 Drops of Blood," the semimonthly performance night curated by Ali Tabatabai, includes Gamelan Sekar Jaya, the world's pre-eminent off-island Balinese gamelan orchestra; Koichi Tamano, founder and director of Harupin-Ha Butoh Dance Theatre; Nanos Operetta, a new music ensemble that combines elements of ethnic music, film scores, modern chamber orchestration, cartoon themes, and cabaret into meditations on the themes of love, disease, and revolution; Melissa Wolfmann, a soprano who has performed with the Fresno Philharmonic, California Opera, and Sofia Grand Opera in Bulgaria, and at the San Francisco NOW Music Festival and Operafestival di Roma; and Pamela Wunderlich, a performance artist and stilt-dancer who has presented her complex portraits of women at the Other Minds New Music Festival, Bumbershoot, and the Los Angeles Zoo. Individually, these artists are spellbinding; together, they will transform your notions of a night out. (It is worth noting that renowned Japanese author Yukio Mishima once considered Koichi Tamano in possession of the most perfect body of all butoh dancers in Tatsumi Hijikata's studio. For his part, Hijikata, the founder of butoh, called Tamano "the bowlegged Nijinsky.") "3 Drops of Blood" will be held on Friday, Feb. 13, at 12 Galaxies at 9 p.m. Tickets are $12-15; call 309-9240.