Following the huge success of the first Masada Opera Festival in which the Israeli Opera presented Verdi's Nabucco by the Mountain of Masada last June, Hanna Munitz, General Director of the Israeli Opera, announced the program for the expanded Masada Opera festival which will now also take place in Jerusalem. Internationally renowned Israeli opera conductor Daniel Oren will return to the majestic landscape at the Judean desert, near the Dead Sea, to lead a new production of Verdi's Aida (a coproduction with the Orange Festival in France) that features internationally acclaimed opera singers including Micaela Carosi, Marco Berti, Ildiko Komlosi, Paata Burchuladze and others. This international opera festival will also feature concerts by the orchestra of the Arena di Verona, concerts in Jerusalem churches, and the Israeli premiere of Verdi's Jerusalem, performed at the open air Sultan's Pool in Jerusalem, overlooking the majestic walls of the old city of Jerusalem. The Dead Sea, Masada and Jerusalem Opera Festival will take place on June 1-11, 2011.
THE MASADA-JERUSALEM EXPERIENCE This June, there will be a larger variety of performances for local and international audiences. The major event will be five performances of a new production of Verdi's Aida in Masada, conducted by internationally renowned Israeli maestro Daniel Oren. The orchestra of the Arena di Verona, conducted by Giuliano Carella will perform Verdi's Requiem in Masada and a gala opera evening with its own soloists in Jerusalem. David Stern will lead the first ever concert performance in Israel of Verdi's rarely performed Jerusalem, at the out door Sultan's Pool in Jerusalem. In addition special concerts will take place in Jerusalem churches.
AIDA Aida is one of Verdi's most popular operas, which is performed regularly indoor and outdoors all over the world. The improbable love story of the enslaved Ethiopian princes Aida to the Egyptian army officer Radames, has captured the imagination of opera lovers all over the world. Now it will come alive by the Mountain of Masada, in a coproduction with the Orange Festival (France) directed by Charles Roubaud and designed by Emmanuelle Favre (set), Denise (Katia) Duflot (costumes), Avi Yona-Bueno (Bambi) (lighting), Bryan Grnat (sound), Nicolas Topor (video) and with a choreography by Jean-Charles Gil. There is no doubt that presenting the triumphal march with Masada as a background will be a unique event. The productions feature 120 choirsters, 40 dancers and 70 extras as well the Israeli Opera's orchestra. The Israel Symphony Orchestra, Rishon LeZion.
THE PERFORMERS Renowned Israeli opera conductor Daniel Oren, one of the leading opera conductors of our age who is a champion of the Italian opera in general and the operas of Verdi in particular, will conduct the production of Aida. Oren has assembled a first rate cast of Verdi singers for this production: Aida – Micaela Carosi/Kirstin Lewis/Dimitra Theodossiou Radames – Marco Berti Amneris – Ildiko Komlosi/Marianne Cornetti Amonasro – Ambrogio Maestri/Alberto Gazale Ramfis – Paata Burchuladze
VERDI'S JERUSALEM One of the highlights of the festival will be a concert performance of Verdi's rarely performed opera Jerusalem, performed at the Sultan's Pool, overlooking the walls of the old city of Jerusalem (June 6). Jerusalem is Verdi's French version of his earlier success I Lombardi. But Jerusalem is not a mere translation to French of the Italian opera. Verdi reworked both the story and the music and has come up with an exciting opera that follows an internal love conspiracy story that takes place during the crusades to the holy land. The story which starts is France takes place then in the city of Ramle and finally reaches Jerusalem where the crusaders wait before their battle to capture the city. Nothing can be more symbolic than to perform this opera in Jerusalem itself. David Stern, the music director of the Israeli Opera, will lead the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, IBA, the Israeli Opera Chorus and international soloists including Carlo Colombara, Scott Piper and Roberto Serville in this performance.
ARENA DI VERONA CONCERTS The renowned orchestra of the Arena di Verona, Italy's leading summer opera festival, makes its debut concerts in Israel in this festival. On June 2, 2011 they will perform a special opera gala concert (Verdi, Puccini and Rossini arias and duets) in Jerusalem's open air Sultan's Pool and on June 3 they will be by the Mountain of Masada to perform the Verdi Requiem. Both concerts will be conducted by Italian conductor Giuliano Carella. The soloists in both concerts will be soprano Svetla Vasileva, mezzo soprano Mariana Pentchava, tenor Stefano Secco and bass Louis-Ottavio Faria. In the Verdi Requiem the Verona orchestra and soloists will be joined by the Israeli Opera Chorus.
CONCERTS IN JERUSALEM CHURCHES Tourists to Jerusalem will be able to enjoy a very special musical Friday on June 3, when 10 different concerts will take place throughout ten various churches at the old and the new city in Jerusalem. Programs will include choral, vocal and chamber music works performed throughout the day by Israeli musicians. Full details of these concerts will be available soon.
MASADA Masada (Hebrew for fortress), is situated atop an isolated rock cliff at the western end of the Judean Desert, overlooking the Dead Sea. It is a place of gaunt and majestic beauty. On the east the rock falls in a sheer drop of about 450 meters to the Dead Sea (the lowest point on earth, some 400 m. below sea level) and in the west it stands about 100 meters above the surrounding terrain. The natural approaches to the cliff top are very difficult. The only written source about Masada is Josephus Flavius The Jewish War. Born Joseph ben Matityahu of a priestly family, he was a young leader at the outbreak of the Great Jewish Rebellion against Rome (66 CE) when he was appointed governor of Galilee. He managed to survive the suicide pact of the last defenders of Jodfat and surrendered to Vespasian (who shortly thereafter was proclaimed emperor) events he described in detail. Calling himself Josephus Flavius, he became a Roman citizen and a successful historian. Moral judgement aside, his accounts have been proved largely accurate. According to Josephus Flavius, Herod the Great built the fortress of Masada between 37 and 31 BCE. Herod, an Idumean, had been made King of Judea by his Roman overlords and was hated by his Jewish subjects. Herod, the master builder, furnished this fortress as a refuge for himself. It included a casemate wall around the plateau, storehouses, large cisterns ingeniously filled with rainwater, barracks, palaces and an armory. Josephus Flavius dramatically recounts the story told him by two surviving women. The defenders almost one thousand men, women and children led by Eleazar ben Yair, decided to burn the fortress and end their own lives, rather than be taken alive. And so met (the Romans) with the multitude of the slain, but could take no pleasure in the fact, though it were done to their enemies. Nor could they do other than wonder at the courage of their resolution, and at the immovable contempt of death which so great a number of them had shown, when they went through with such an action as that was. The heroic story of Masada and its dramatic end attracted many explorers to the Judean desert in attempts to locate the remains of the fortress. The site was identified in 1842, but intensive excavations took place only in 1963-65, with the help of hundreds of enthusiastic volunteers from Israel and from many foreign countries, eager to participate in this exciting archeological venture. To them and to Israelis, Masada symbolizes the determination of the Jewish people to be free in its own land.
Δεν υπάρχουν σχόλια:
Δημοσίευση σχολίου