Last update - 00:00 05/10/2006
Chamber music, stretched and tested
Due to the rockets falling on the Galilee this summer, the 22nd Chamber Music Festival, scheduled for late July, was postponed. But the organizers of the Voice of Music's festival in the Upper Galilee did not give up, and the festival will take place during the intermediate days of the Sukkot holiday (October 8-12).
In the dozen years since the retirement of Idit Zvi, the founder and artistic director of the festival during its first decade, the event underwent many changes, tried a lot of new forms and changed its character every time a new director took over - which was quite often - but never lost its original chamber focus. The current musical director, Michael Meltzer, has been directing the festival for a number of years, and although its definition as a chamber festival has been expanded and stretched to the limit, the principles have remained the same: The festival is still based on a classical romantic repertoire.
The main events at the festival are two special, original productions that give this festival its unique flavor. The first is a musical arrangement for Shakespeare's "The Tempest" (Monday at 5 P.M.).
"Four hundred years ago Shakespeare wrote this play, which fits the classic definition of neither a comedy nor a tragedy," says Amos Mokadi, who re-translated the play, arranged and directed the current production.
"The bard hinted to his audience, which was astounded by the play, that only in the future, in a few hundred years, would its meaning be understood," says Mokadi.
Mokadi found this veiled meaning in the plot.
"It takes place over the course of a single day on an isolated island in the Mediterranean Sea, where eastern and western cultures clash, resulting in conflicts between the inhabitants of the island and visitors shipwrecked there by a storm," explains Mokadi. "I feel this setting offers a solution to Shakespeare's hint."
Mokadi therefore set the play in the present and in our region. He did not alter the text - only its tone.
The culture clash - in this case Israeli multiculturalism - is presented by the Jewish and Palestinian-Arab cast chosen for the production. The three performers, who play nine roles, are Mokadi himself, actress Salwa Nakara and singer Inas Masalha. The music was composed by Bishara Hal; playing piano, flute and strings are Naaman Wenger, Yael Barolsky, Yael Meltzer, Natalia Shar, Matan Gilishansky and Hagit Glaser.
The second major original production at the festival, also a musical-theatrical original, will be performed two days later (Wednesday at 12:45 P.M.) by singer-actress Etty Ben-Zaken and her partner, composer Eitan Steinberg, the artists who last year brought to the festival "Stabat Mater - A Human Lament." This year's offering, "The Policeman who Loved to Sing," was inspired by Tarot cards.
Prior to this performance Ben-Zaken will sing folk songs and tell stories from the traditions of Israel's ethic communities - in Hebrew, Arabic, Yiddish, Judeo-Spanish, German and Armenian, among others. Thus the concert is a continuation of the work of this artistic duo, who make contemporary arrangements for popular and ancient songs.
Dancing to Vivaldi
Tuesday's main performance - "The Lady with the Camellias" (12 P.M.), an international flamenco-style theatrical production, shows just how far Meltzer has dared to tread beyond the stylistic boundaries of his festival. Even so, the chamber concerts of classical romantic mainstream music by Haydn and Schumann, Dvorak, Beethoven and others - plus the open rehearsals that have become the hallmark of this festival - repeatedly put him back on track. Thus one can enjoy a week of chamber concerts with piano accompaniment, works by Robert and Clara Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Lieder medleys by Schubert and his "Trout Quintet," some of the best chamber music for oboe and music by Bach.
The setting for the events, based on the theme of "Tribute Performances," will be quite lighthearted and even somewhat sycophantic, and will include hits Meltzer intended "for residents of the North," as opposed to the classic and modern programs he reserves for his serious visitors from Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. The Haifa Symphony Orchestra will open with an outdoor concert, "Hatzafon Bamercaz" (The North in the Center), and Giora Feidman and a Jerusalem ensemble will wrap up with a production of "From Klezmer to Piccola."