News of the Muse

Tel Aviv to host world music festival.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Tel Aviv to host world music festival Artists from England, Brazil, Mexico and Spain will be among the performers at World Music 2006, a festival scheduled July 13 to 15 in the greater Tel Aviv area. Highlighting the festival will be flamenco duo Diego El Cigala and Bebo Valdes, whose 2004 collaboration, "Lagrimas Negras," won a number of international prizes and scored huge sales in El Cigala's native Spain. The pair has earned a considerable following in Israel as well, and will be joined for the festival by Afro-Brazilian group Olodum and Mexican-American singer Lila Downs, a performer on the Oscar-winning soundtrack to 2002's Frida. Concerts will take place at venues including the Ra'anana Amphipark and Tel Aviv's Zappa Club, with tickets to individual shows priced between NIS 149 and 298. Discounted prices will be offered to those buying tickets to more than one concert. - Nathan Burstein Israeli film triumphs at Rome film fest An Israeli film has won a top prize at the Rome International Short Film Festival. Lilah Afel (Dark Night), a 29-minute production by Russian-born filmmaker Leonard Prudovsky, was named the best short film of the festival, beating out competitors from Brazil, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates and much of Europe. In the film, three Israeli soldiers take refugee in the home of a Palestinian couple after escaping an ambush; during the course of a night in the home, the soldiers make a connection with their unwilling hosts despite not sharing a common language. Prudovsky's film previously won a Special Mention at last September's Venice Film Festival. It was produced with the assistance of the New Israeli Foundation for Cinema and Television, which has provided organizational support and funding for over 200 Israeli documentary and fiction films. - Nathan Burstein Cameri picks contemporary classics Nine original Israeli plays and 14 classic /translated productions will be staged in 2006-2007 at the Cameri Theater in Tel Aviv. Among the new Israeli works is a play by Yair Lapid (Right Age for Love/ Hagil Hanachon Le'ahava) about a middle aged woman who wants to leave her husband for a younger man and the reactions of her family. Anat Gov's new comedy Warm Family/Mishpaha Hama also deals with the family. Gov, who was behind the successful play House Husband, this time stages the story of a son, who during Friday night dinner announces that he will not attend Passover seder, choosing instead to celebrate with friends. Also on the bill is Alon Hatzor's Caesarea Congress/Kenes Caesarea, a satire on Israeli society from the point of view of its golden age populace. Included among the translated/classic works are Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, Antigone by Sophocles, The Caretaker by Harold Pinter, Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Federico Garcia Lorca's "Blood Wedding", among others. In addition to entertaining locals, the Cameri Theater of Tel Aviv is also scheduled to tour during the upcoming year. Among its destinations are Washington, DC, Berlin, London and Johannesburg. - Viva Sarah Press