Baroque muse in play

The Theater of Miniatures' performances come with a theatrical twist: they act and interact with the audience.

By HANNAH BLACHMAN
shirelle 88 (photo credit: )
shirelle 88
(photo credit: )
The Theater of Miniatures early music duo was formed in 2004 by soprano Shirelle Dashevsky and harpsichordist Alexander Rosenblatt. Their performances come with a theatrical twist: they act and interact with the audience, so that each concert contains miniature plays. Dashevsky, originally trained as a pianist in the Ukraine and then as a singer in Moscow, made aliya in 2000 to Jerusalem. She is equally at home in chamber music, both baroque and other periods and in opera. Her specialty is coloratura singing, characterized by very high bell-like sounds (think of the Queen of the Night in Mozart's opera The Magic Flute). Singing in nine languages, she has also acted on Israeli television and with the Jerusalem Literature Theater and maintains a teaching studio. Rosenblatt, originally from Sverdlosk in the former USSR, made aliya in 1990. In addition to a prolific performance schedule as harpsichordist, organist and conductor, he has released two solo harpsichord albums. He teaches historical performance practice at Bar Ilan University and is pursuing a Masters degree at Hebrew University in oriental music of Israel. Since 2005 Shirelle and Alexander have presented programs like "London-Napoli-St.Petersburg", "Baroque for the Soul" and "Far from the Triumphing Court" (the title of a song by Elizabethan composer John Dowland), which last program was recorded as their first disk, devoted to music by Caccini, Dowland, Scarlatti, Handel. Baroque is famous for its soothing quality. Their current program "Heavenly Baroque" includes music by Bach, Handel, Gluck, Albinoni as well as lesser-known composers. One of the unusual features of this program is the inclusion of instrumental pieces that are sung. For example, Dashevsky sings the flute part of the Badinerie from the Orchestral Suite in B minor by Bach and the flute part of the Melody by Gluck from his opera Orfeo ed Euridce. The Theater of Miniatures performs "Heavenly Baroque" tomorrow night at 8 p.m., Helen Hall, 7-a Nachal Absor, Ashdod. Admission is NIS 65, call 050-795-79-70 for reservations.