By JERUSALEM POST STAFFAsaf Avidan(photo credit: PR)
1. AN INSPIRING TRUE STORYBleed for This is a film about one of the most inspiring comebacks in sports history. Miles Teller stars as Vinny “The Pazmanian Devil” Pazienza, a boxer who shot to stardom after winning two world title fights. After a near-fatal car accident leaves Vinny with a severed spine, doctors tell him that he may never walk again.With the help of renowned trainer Kevin Rooney, Vinny becomes a legend when he not only walks again but returns to the ring to reclaim his title only a year after the accident.2. TAKING A STANDIn the new film Miss Sloane, Jessica Chastain portrays Elizabeth Sloane, a Washington lobbyist who is willing to bend the rules for her clients. But when she is asked to help oppose a bill that imposes regulations on firearms, she joins a scrappy boutique firm that represents the backers of the law. Her defiant stance and determination to win make her the target of powerful new enemies who threaten her career and the people she cares about.3. PITHY POETRYIsraeli singer/songwriter Asaf Avidan presents an intimate concert highlighting his upcoming album Into The Labyrinth. “His high voice can be sweetly androgynous but can also rise to a cutting, rasping, bluesy howl,” The New York Times wrote about him, adding that his lyrics are “pithy poetry informed by literature, mythology and ballad tradition, akin to Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan.”Tonight at 10 p.m. at the Charles Bronfman Auditorium (Heichal Hatarbut), Tel Aviv4. GRAND PERFORMANCEThe Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève, one of the leading European dance companies, presents works created by two intriguing choreographers, performed by dancers with incredible technique and strongly defined characters. Lux by Ken Ossola is set to Fauré’s Requiem; and Glory by Andonis Foniadakis is set to music by Handel.December 19 to 21 at 8 p.m. at the Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center (the Opera House)5. GRAND PIANOThe Pianos Festival, which opens at the Jerusalem Theater this week, pays tribute to Andre Hajdu, the Israeli composer and educator who passed away several months ago. In the second concert of the festival, the Israel Netanya Kibbutz Orchestra with pianist-conductor Saleem Abboud Ashkar present a program called From Beethoven to Mendelssohn. The concert will open with a screening of a short film in which Hajdu talks about Beethoven. Later in another video, Abboud Ashkar talks about the music of Beethoven and Mendelssohn as a source of inspiration for his own creative work.December 22 at 9 p.m. at the Jerusalem Theater6. MASTERFUL IMAGESCritically acclaimed art photographer Roger Ballen opens a new exhibition at Zemack Gallery this week.“The Theatre of Apparitions” is an immersive and groundbreaking project of the artist who is best known for his psychologically powerful and masterfully composed images that exist in a space between painting, drawing, installation and photography. This project is both a departure from his existing oeuvre and the culmination of his unique esthetic linking image-making and theatrical performance.Opening reception December 22, Zemack Contemporary Art, 68 Hey B’iyar Street, Tel Aviv7. THE FIGURE OF JESUS“Behold the Man: Jesus in Israeli Art” is an exhibition that focuses on works by Jewish and Israeli artists from the 19th century until today. The exhibition, the result of extensive research, presents multivalent, unexpected, and at times subversive artistic responses to the figure of Jesus. Among the many artists featured in the exhibition are Maurycy Gottlieb, Marc Chagall, E. M. Lilien, Reuven Rubin, Igael Tumarkin, Moshe Gershuni, Motti Mizrachi, Menashe Kadishman, Michal Na’aman, Adi Nes and Sigalit Landau.Ongoing at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem8. RECREATING THE MAGICFor its 80th anniversary, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra performs a special concert, 80 years after The Palestine Symphony Orchestra (precursor of the IPO) performed its inaugural concert conducted by Arturo Toscanini (December 26, 1936). The concert program included Weber’s Oberon Overture; Brahms’s Symphony No. 2; and the Nocturne and Scherzo from Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The orchestra presents a seminal concert under the baton of renowned conductor Riccardo Muti, who recently recreated the inaugural program.December 20 at 8 p.m. at the Charles Bronfman Auditorium (Heichal Hatarbut), Tel Aviv9. ‘COME TOGETHER’The Israeli Opera singers perform an evening of songs by The Beatles as part of The Opera at Zappa series. The Beatles’ greatest hits come alive in a dynamic evening performed by the talented young singers, with music director and pianist David Sebba.December 27 at 8:15 p.m. at Zappa Herzliya. For tickets, call *908010. WHAT WOMEN NEEDMore than 350 Jewish and Arab artists donated 450 works for the 11th annual “Bread and Roses” exhibition and sale. All proceeds will go toward helping to integrate Arab women into the labor market. Under the auspices of WAC-MAAN, the Workers Advice Center, and the nonprofit Sindyanna Fair Trade in Israel.December 29 to 31 at the Artists Workshop Gallery, 5 Kalisher Street, Tel Aviv. For more information: www.breadandroses.org.il
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