Showtime 379634

Showtime

By BARRY DAVIS
DocAviv Galilee Festival (photo credit: PR)
DocAviv Galilee Festival
(photo credit: PR)
Seven sopranos in Tel Aviv
There will be plenty of upper-register vocal music on offer in the seven-part series called The Sopranos in Tel Aviv. The lineup features seven of our best-known sopranos, starting with Sharon Rostorf-Zamir on November 6 and closing with a concert by Keren Hadar on July 23.
The program was conceived by conductor, singer, pianist and stylist Hagai Yodan and covers a wide range of material from across expansive stretches of styles and eras. Rostorf-Zamir’s slot, for example, includes works by Schumann, Schubert and Brahms, as well as the world premiere of a composition by Yodan.
On January 8, Enas Massalha will present the Prayer and Song pro - gram, which will take in works based on prayers, as well as material with which Massalha strongly identifies on a personal level. She will sing “Ave Maria” from Verdi’s Othello and “Moon Song” from Dvorak’s opera Rusalka , as well as the Byzantine Christian Arab song “Ya Mariam,” the world premiere of a work by Georgian-born Israeli composer Josef Bardanashvili, works by 20th-century American composer Samuel Barber and gospel songs.
The series will close with Hadar’s performance of songs by Argentinean nuevo tango composer Astor Piazzolla and by 20th-century Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu and a new work by Israeli composer Moshe Zorman.
All the concerts will take place at Yodan’s Music Studio at 27 Schocken Street, Tel Aviv. Doors open at 7:45 p.m.
For more information: http://thesopranos.co.il/
Piano Festival returns
This year for the first time, the annual Piano Festival will take place at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, from November 5 to 8. More than 40 shows will be held in six performance areas around the museum.
The four-day program features a number of programs commissioned for the festival, including shows by Yehudit Ravitz, Ariel Horowitz, Keren Ann and Knesiyat Hasechel. The list of Piano Festival first-timers includes veteran crooner Yehoram Gaon, francophile rock singer Riff Cohen and the wild and woolly Balkan Beat Box.
The festival roster is festooned with big names from across the local pop and rock spectrum, with Shlomi Shaban, Dana Berger, Shlomo Gronich, Riki Gal and Yael Deckelbaum unveiling new material. There will also be a number of children-oriented shows in the Saturday morning slot, with performers such as Yehonatan Gefen, Dana Frieder and Amir Farkash.
For tickets and more information: *9080 and www.zappaclub.co.il
Cohen tribute and art screening
Sivan Abelson and Yaniv Horowitz will perform a program of songs writ - ten by Leonard Cohen at the Ilana Goor Museum in Jaffa on October 25 (9 p.m.).
Abelson and Horowitz are well- known singer-songwriters in their own right. Abelson fronted the Itliz rock band; and Horowitz was a member of English-language indie rock band Bucharest, which is a regular on the Israeli and European gig circuits. He also performed with the experimental rock duo Heavy Monkey.
The Ilana Goor Museum is also hosting the “Art Screening” video art exhibition, which addresses a range of top - ics, such as individual, social, cultural and gender identity. The exhibition closes on November 8.
For tickets and more information: (03) 683-7676, ext. 03 and www.ilanagoormuseum.org.
DocAviv Galilee turns six
The Galilean version of the annual DocAviv documentary film festival will take place at Ma’alot-Tarshiha for the sixth year from October 28 to November 1.
The five-day program features more than 30 films from Israel and around the world. South by Southwest Film Festival winner Print the Legend is about the 3D print revolution, direct - ed by Luis Lopez and J. Clay Twee.
Morgan Neville’s Twenty Feet from Stardom is a fascinating portrait of pop and rock backup singers. And Blackfish, by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, is about a tamed killer whale that suddenly re - verts to its natural aggressive instincts.
The local side of the screening line - up includes Noa Shabtai’s My Father Is Yaakov Shabtai in which the director explores her famous novelist father’s personality; Vanessa Lafa’s chilling investigation into the character of the architect of the Final Solution, Hein - rich Himmler, in The Decent One ; and Mom Is Not Crazy , directed by Mordehai Vardi, about a woman with a personality disorder and her struggle to lead a normal family life and tackle rabbinical obstacles.
The festival program also includes concerts by Mira Awad and the Andalusian Orchestra; a show by the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company; the Druse rock band; and a workshop about musical documentaries present - ed by veteran radio DJ Yoav Kutner and London-born Israeli film director Avida Livny.
For more information: www.westgalil.org.il