The recent entirely homegrown Israeli Opera production of Handel’s Alcina, named after a sorceress queen, is at the same time periodically musically enchanting, yet on the whole more bewildering than bewitching
The Israeli Opera’s recent production of Mozart’s famed comedic opera The Marriage of Figaro was as entertaining as much by virtue of the performers’ acting as by their superb singing
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The New Israeli Opera will open its doors again on Thursday night, but don’t expect a grand opera just yet.
For now, the Tel Aviv opera house is starting up with some lighter fare, beginning with conductor David Sebba’s arrangement of “Hebrew Songs,” performed by four opera singers with the Ra’anana Symphonette Orchestra.
With songs by Natan Alterman, Matti Caspi, Naomi Shemer, Ehud Manor and other early Israeli music, the performance brings favorite Israeli classics alive onstage.
The two performances of “Hebrew Songs” on Thursday and Friday, March 11 and 12, will be followed by “The Sopranos,” another Sebba arrangement of opera highlights, with opera singers performing popular arias, duets and ensembles from “The Magic Flute,” “La traviata,” “La forza del destino,” “Les Contes d’Hoffmann,” “Don Giovanni,” and “Le nozze di Figaro,” conducted by Sebba a