The Israeli Opera returned to Ofakim on Monday evening with a community production of The Magic Flute, performed in Hebrew and created in close partnership with residents as the city marked its 70th anniversary and the opera company marked 40 years of activity.
According to the opera company, the performance marked its first return to Ofakim in more than a decade and formed part of its 40th anniversary season, which included a slate of social and educational initiatives aimed at strengthening cultural access and community resilience.
Organizers said the project was carried out through ongoing cooperation with Israel’s Ministry of Culture and Sport, the Ofakim Municipality, and supporters of the opera in Israel and abroad.
The production followed months of joint work, rehearsals, and community meetings. About 250 Ofakim residents took part, including children, teenagers, and adults, with roughly 200 appearing on stage in singing, movement, and acting roles alongside seven Israeli Opera soloists, a conductor, and professional crews, organizers said.
The opera was performed in Hebrew and was dedicated, in the organizers’ words, to the “spirit of renewal, creativity, and healing” in the city and among its residents.
Community stages Magic Flute in Ofakim for 70th anniversary
The event was attended by Ofakim Mayor Itzik Danino and his wife, board chair Prof. Nili Cohen, Israeli Opera CEO Tali Barash Gottlieb, and Friends Association chair Aliza Yaffo.
Also present were three Ofakim women highlighted by organizers as symbols of civilian courage following the October 7 massacre: Rachel Edri, Tali Hadad, and Moran Tadgi, a police officer who has spoken publicly about the fighting in the city that day.
Edri became widely known in Israel after terrorists entered her home in Ofakim on October 7, and she and her husband were later rescued. Hadad has also shared her family’s account of that morning in Ofakim and the effort to help the wounded amid the chaos.
Ofakim, a city in Israel’s western Negev, faced a deadly assault during the Hamas-led attack on October 7. Public tallies and investigations have reported dozens of residents killed in and around the city during the attack and subsequent fighting. Organizers said the city also paid a continuing price during the war that followed.
The Israeli Opera has described the Ofakim initiative as part of its broader community activity, built around productions created together with residents and intended to bring professional opera into towns and regions beyond Israel’s major cultural centers.