Jerusalem Lyric Opera

24th Sep 2023

Homage to Enrico Caruso

"I had always sung as far back as I can remember, for the pure love of it." With this quotation, the Consulate General of Italy in Jerusalem together with the Jerusalem Lyric Opera Festival commemorates the 150th birthday of the legendary Italian opera singer Enrico Caruso.

The name of the great Italian opera singer Enrico Caruso is known all over the world - he had a voice of rare timbre, performed leading roles in more than 80 operas, released about 260 recordings, and was included in the Guinness Book of Records as the first performer in the history of recordings whose record sold a million copies. The concert taking place on October 23 at 20.00 in the YMCA Auditorium.

The entrance is free.

14th Sep 2023

B.Bartok Bluebeard Castle

Since Charles Perrault wrote his literary tale of Bluebeard in 1697, using, according to researchers, real-life prototypes to create the image of a sinister and ruthless aristocrat-polygamist in whose castle there is a mysterious room with the remains of his many wives, this plot has become one of the most common “wandering subjects” migrating from century to century, from one national culture to another. This folklore story offers modern authors inexhaustible themes and motives for reinterpretation and also raises eternal questions about a happy marriage, women`s destiny, and gender roles.

Jerusalem Lyric Opera presents a rare masterpiece, the unique opera of Bela Bartok Bluebeard`s Castle, in a new production by Yulia Fayn conducted by maestro Patrick Furrer, which explores the idea of love. Marta Matalon starts as Judith, opposite Markus Hollop as Duke Bluebeard.

27th May 2023

G.Bizet Carmen

Georges Bizet`s opus has existed for almost a century and a half and is one of the leaders in the modern operatic repertoire. Comparing the performances of different years and in different countries, one can see not only the diverse and colorful world of incarnations of an operatic masterpiece but also reflections of a specific historical time.

Carmen:Love and Freedom
Premiered in France in 1875, Georges Bizet’s opera Carmen (with libretto by Henri Meilhax and Ludovic Halévy, based on a novella by Prosper Mérimée) provided audiences with a main character who is not only aware of her sexuality but who knows how to use it as a source of power and self-satisfaction. Carmen is often viewed as an ambiguous protagonist of questionable morals embody a triple threat toward male characters in the opera.
For stage director Rocc "the famous story of the seductive gypsy woman is basically a social drama that raises the question of free love as a momentary unbridled passion, versus jealousy and revenge inevitably leading to destruction. Carmen and her lover, Don José, live two diametrically different lives: he is an orderly soldier aiming at an idyllic family life in the countryside, and she is a free spirit attracted to spontaneous life on the edge of society. The clash of two archetypes: orderly and rational logic versus uncivilized and chaotic exoticism. When the two worlds meet, they mutually excite each other, but as a result, they necessarily nullify each other. The conflict between normative-dogmatic social systems and free-thinking primal human instincts, as well as the eternal motive of passionate love, are no less different and relevant today." Conductor Paolo Spadaro brings together such illustrious colleagues as Marta Matalon, Alin Stoica, Michal Partyka, and others.

Secure tickets for Alcina now

26th May 2023

All opera production at JLOF

Surrealism is one of the most striking trends in the art of the twentieth century, marked by the emergence of new images, concepts, and artistic and aesthetic canons. Anri Breton in The Second Manifesto of Surrealism (1929) proclaims the need "to overcome the senseless separation of alleged opposites (beautiful and ugly, true and false) to which civilizations and societies that care about the perpetuation of violence are so devoted” Sofia Mazar, musical director of the Festival, chose the theme of surrealism, with its aesthetics based on the constant “playing” of the two worlds, where the reality of untrue everyday life and the reality of true dreams collide” as the theme of this year’s Festival.

Alcina`s magical and insincerity world

Handel`s Alchina (1735), a beautiful world that lives only at the request of the sorceress Alchina, is contradictory. The naturalness, and insincerity of the "wonderful place" come into conflict with each other and, in the end, become the cause of its death. It is no coincidence that the island of Alchina does not emerge from the fog, we do not approach it but collide with it suddenly and it is no coincidence that the stage director Katya Korabelnik interprets the opera as an illusory carnival in which adults play like children, and love and passion serve as toys for them. Conductor Ethan Schmeisser already conducted Alcina in 2022 at the Israeli Opera. For the scenic performance at the Jerusalem Festival, he brings together such amazing colleagues as Veronica Kurmanov, Giorgi Cucovsky, Johannes Czernin, and others.

Secure tickets for Alcina now

18th Feb 2023

Introducing... Alcina

Jerusalem Lyric Opera Festival 2023 will see Alcina`s first production, directed by Katia Korabelnik and conducted by Ethan Schmeisser. Alcina is a philosophical parable about the vicissitudes of love and the delusions of reason. This story can be interpreted in any way, as a children`s fairy tale about brave heroes who defeated an evil sorceress, as an enchanting baroque performance, or as a psychological drama. Brief introduction The opera`s setting is the enchantress Alcina`s island: here by her magic powers she has created a magnificent palace in a beautiful landscape, to lure her many lovers into her power. One of these is Ruggiero, a warrior, who under Alcina`s spell has forsaken his duty and his betrothed, Bradamante. When we first meet Alcina in Act I’s beautiful, regal, “Di, cor mio” (“Tell them, dear heart”), she demonstrates no hint of her awful side but appears in this enraptured music to be simply a woman in love with Ruggiero.