The Israeli Opera’s next installment is the tragic Orfeo ed Euridice by
Christoph Willibald Gluck. This Baroque piece, which offers an insightful look
at the tormented soul of the artist who is ever searching for his muse, tells
the mythological story about the singer /poet Orpheus whose wife dies, and he
receives a second chance from the gods to bring her back to the land of the
living.
Premiered in Venice in 1776, Orfeo ed Euridice was first
performed at the Israeli Opera in 1991. It now returns to Tel Aviv in a new
production, staged by renowned Polish director Mariusz Trelinski and conducted
by the Israeli Opera’s artistic director David Stern, who specializes on Baroque
music. The entire cast is comprised of young Israeli singers, something that was
unthinkable 20 years ago. The opera features only three characters: Orfeo (Yaniv
d’Or/Alon Harari), Euridice (Hila Baggio/Claire Meghnagi), and Amor (Hila
Fahima/Dana Marbach). The Israeli Opera Chorus and the Israel Symphony Orchestra
Rishon Lezion participate in the production. The opera is sung in Italian, with
surtitles in English and Hebrew.
Alon Harari, 30, one of the performers
of the role of Orfeo, started his vocal studies at 17 as a tenor, His first
problems appeared three years later: “My upper register always sounded rather
feminine, and the more I studied, the less masculine my voice became,” he says.
One day his teacher confided to him that she simply didn’t know what to do about
it and simply handed him the notes of a song written for a woman’s voice and
said, “Just sing it!”
“Surprisingly enough, I was able to sing it, and a week
later I already could not sing as a tenor. Obviously, my vocal chords, after
finding their true vocation, refused to sing anything else,” he
says.
Harari graduated from the Tel Aviv Music Academy and studied in
Berlin. He reached the finals in two major vocal competitions – the
Francisco Vinas competition in Barcelona and the Musica Sacra in
Rome.
“About 300 to 500 vocalists participate in these competitions, and
only 15 to 20 get to the final stage,” he says. “In the Musica Sacra, I was the
only countertenor in the final round.”
Harari was under 25 when he first
sang Orfeo in an international production in Vilnius, Lithuania. But his true
operatic start were performances in the German cities of Munster and Dortmund at
age 26, as well as his participation in Halle Handel Festival. He spent the
winter of 2011-12 in Helsinki, singing Tolomeo in the Finnish National Opera
production of Handel’s Julius Caesar.
“I mostly sing in Baroque operas,
and mostly in those by Handel because, luckily enough, he wrote them a lot, so
there always is a Handel opera being staged here or there,” laughs Harari, “and
I always have a job.”
Speaking of his attraction to Baroque operas,
Harari explains that they are never boring: “There usually is a lot of action in
the plot. Julius Caesar in Helsinki, where I appeared with another
Israeli soprano singer Claire Meghnagi, was sheer fun. No props, but a lot of
costumes – I think I had eight costume changes during the show, and there was
the lighting designer, who worked with Lady Gaga!”
Countertenor parts
(originally intended for castrato altos) first appeared in the mid-18
century. There are still a few small parts in Mozart operas, but then a
150- year hiatus followed. “But lately, composers show a lot of interest in the
countertenor voice, and next year in Warsaw I will sing Lament for Jerusalem by
John Tavener,” says Harari Unlike traditionally larger-than-life, five-hour
Baroque operas, Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice is an 80-minute little gem, featuring
only three characters and a choir. The story deals with human beings, not kings
or angels.
“This is a simple story that can happen at any time in any
place to any person: Orfeo’s wife dies on their wedding day. There are no
fireworks or superficial effects in Gluck’s music.
Rather, it is built on
nuances, so it is not by chance that it has become one of the most frequently
performed operas. Our cooperation with director Mariusz Trelinski is
captivating. With him, we go to the basics of acting, and he demands the utmost
sincerity from us. He wants our souls to be naked on stage, making it impossible
for there to be any falseness in front of the audience. This is why I think the
show will be highly successful.”
Harari adds that he is happy to perform
for the first time at the Israeli Opera. “Our opera house is like a family, and
after rehearsals you return home, not to a hotel room or an opera apartment, and
that makes a big difference.”
Orfeo ed Euridice runs until May 22, with a
few additional programs. The Towards Opening preview presentation: May 12 at 11
a.m. Before the show back stage tours: May 15, 16 & 20 at 6:45 p.m; and
Opera Talkback: May 15, 16, 20 & 21.
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