- Title: ISRAEL: Opera on Dead Sea shores
- Date: 7th June 2010
- Summary: MASADA, ISRAEL (RECENT - MAY, 30 2010) (REUTERS) ACTORS AND SINGERS ON STAGE, PERFORMING NABUCCO OPERA DURING DRESS REHEARSAL ACTORS DRESSED AS SOLDIERS CONDUCTOR DANIEL OREN CONDUCTING ORCHESTRA ACTORS RIDING HORSES ENTERING STAGE MOON ACTOR LEADING HORSE INTO STAGE / ACTOR HOLDING BOW AND ARROW ON CARRIAGE ATTACHED TO HORSE
- Embargoed: 22nd June 2010 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Israel
- Country: Israel
- Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz
- Reuters ID: LVAB3SYE0DSH6E7X0102I6UOP8K3
- Story Text: Music lovers have found cause to celebrate in a groundbreaking spectacular opera event at one of Israel's most important landmarks.
The staging last week of Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi's Nabucco on a patch of desert on the shores of the Dead Sea with the historic mountain of Masada as a backdrop has taken the Israel Opera to new realms, its director said.
"We came to virgin desert, with nothing, nothing at all and we had to build everything: Infrastructure, to deal with the area, which is very difficult, to straighten it, to build roads and to get electricity and water and all oh what you will see tonight, a stage, a huge tribune for 6,500 seats, so this is what we did," the Israel Opera's general director Hanna Munitz told Reuters.
Outdoor opera is not a new concept and a number of well established, popular festivals have captivated audiences at ancient settings worldwide. But with no infrastructure to hand, the task at Masada was daunting and expensive.
Masada is a flat-topped mountain where King Herod the Great built a fortress completed in 31 BC.
According to ancient historian Josephus it was the site of a Roman siege that ended in 73 AD when hundreds of Jewish rebels known as Sicarii committed mass suicide rather than fall as slaves to the Romans.
The story of the Sicarii's defiance has turned the bare sandstone mountain into a revered site for Israelis and Jews who see it as a symbol of defiance in adversity.
That perception tied in well with the choice of Nabucco, the tale based on biblical king Nebuchadnezzar's capture and sacking of Jerusalem and his exiling of the Jews to Babylon.
"Nabucco is a symbol of....maybe the most Jewish, if you we can say so, Opera by Verdi. And this area is so symbolic for the Jewish history so we thought that the combination of both of them will bring an added value to what we are doing," Munitz said.
Israel's Tourism Ministry, also a partner in the project, saw the event as a chance to attract tourists.
"Almost 4000 tourists are coming for this, actually for this project only. It's precedent. Never before tourists came to Israel for a cultural project. Now they are here, they are on their way, so it worked" Munitz said.
Previous cultural events have been held at Masada, a UNESCO World Heritage site and for decades a source of archaeological fascination, but Nabucco is the most ambitious musical project there to date.
Munitz said the week-long event at the foot of the mountain took three years of planning and cost some 20 million shekels (about $7 million), most of the expenditure covered by ticket sales.
Five full performances and a gala concert featuring famed U.S. soprano Jessye Norman were a sellout weeks in advance, proving that Masada's isolation and distance from main population centres was not an obstacle.
Munitz said there are plans to stage Aida, another Verdi opera, next year with the hope of making the venue a permanent fixture on the world's opera festival calendar.
Spectacular lighting and pyrotechnics, a choir of more than 120 singers and a similar number of actors, horses and camels on a huge stage made for a memorable performance under the baton of conductor Daniel Oren, an expert in outdoor opera.
Georgian bass Paata Burchuladze, who sang the role of Jewish high priest Zakaria, is no stranger to outdoor opera festivals. But he said performing at Masada was unique.
"Really this is something very very special and everything...I'm sure that very soon this festival will be very famous in the world. I mean, it's already famous but will be very famous," he said.
Members of the audience on dress rehearsal night were beaming after the event.
"Fabulous. I very enjoyed it. it was amazing show, the lights, the orchestra, everything was wonderful, unbelievable," said Dror.
Shlomo Toledo, another viewer, said: "I have seen this opera before in Tel Aviv, but to see it near Masada has doubled the enjoyment."
Although impressed with the technical aspects of the production, Omer Shomroni, a music critic for Israel Radio, said the music "lacked excitement".
"The more heart-warming and delicate arias do not come across fully," he said citing the need for sound amplification in outdoor venues and a desert wind that detracted from the unhindered sound in an opera house. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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