The best Israeli artists from all musical genres will gather for a week to offer unusual combinations and a journey between styles and worlds. By Chiquita Levov.
The long-awaited and beloved Felicja Blumental International Festival, founded 27 years ago by the late Annette Celine, is returning. This year, Ido Shpitalnik, conductor, cultural entrepreneur, and artistic director of the Jerusalem Street Orchestra, has been appointed as artistic director of the festival. We are informed that for this festival, "he has created a fresh and innovative musical journey featuring prominent Israeli creators and outstanding musicians living in Israel and abroad." This indicates that this time, too, he is bringing together the best Israeli artists from different musical fields: popular, classical, early music, jazz, Arabic music, contemporary music, musicals, and more. Over five marathon days, 5 artists, two orchestras, two choirs, 145 ensembles, and an opera house will gather, hoping to create unique musical experiences. Among the 2 shows, the program includes important and unique special productions, as well as the premieres of Israeli and international productions. From March 2 to 11, at the Tel Aviv Museum. More information: www.fbmc.co.il
Shpitalnik and the Street Orchestra
Among the original productions created especially for this year's Festival will be a promising first collaboration with the Israeli Opera for the performance of Leonard Bernstein's opera “Trouble in Tahiti"a special and rare performance of Strauss's melodrama for narrator and piano, with Yaron London.
Directed by Shirit Lee Weiss and under the baton de Rotem Nir. It is A one-act opera that blends genres, it tells the story of a married couple facing a complex reality that contrasts sharply with the need for a perfect, sugary appearance of 50s American suburbia. It is a collaboration between Meitar Studio of the Opera and the Street orchestra of jerusalemThe Street Orchestra
is a professional chamber orchestra working to make classical music accessible to new audiences by playing concerts in alternative venues and public spaces in Jerusalem. It has performed dozens of open-air concerts, as well as many festivals.
Ydov and Rada
Among the 17 performances and events of the Festival, there will also be a traveling concert in the museum galleries with PĒRĒ Trio. The Amber Jerusalem Trio will perform on a journey through time. A tribute to Luciano Berio and Cathy Berberian, on the centenary of their birth, will be presented by the soprano. Einat Aronstein and other artists. In a unique collaboration with the National Library of Israel, the Romantic composer Friedrich Gernsheim will be presented in an Israeli premiere by the Israeli Chamber Project and readings of personal letters written by other great composers. An extraordinary and exciting original production will bring together the singers Alon Eder, Ester Rada and Shlomo Ydov alongside the Efroni Choir for new arrangements of popular Israeli classics.
Oppenheim and the Revolution
In addition, the Festival will premiere an original production for the whole family with Yannets Levi and Revolution Orchestra about Levi's novel: “Princess Avigail and the factory of emotions,” a work for narrator and orchestra. It is an extraordinary collaboration between the author Yannets Levi, the international composer Avner Dorman who wrote the original music, and the Revolution Orchestra conducted by one of its directors Roy OppenheimIn this show for children and the whole family, Levi and the orchestra will come together and tell, through words and music, an immersive story about human emotions, both good and bad. The work is based on Levi's best-selling book of the same name.
“Chorole”
A Spanish-Israeli fusion concert, don Alon Sariel playing mandolin with three international Israeli artists in a special plucked string trio ensemble. The program includes works by Francisco Tárrega, Isaac Albéniz, Josef Bardanashvili, Yehezkel Braun, and others. A family-friendly concert with free admission (prior registration required) in the Museum's Sculpture Garden with the ensemble. Israeli “Chorolê”” which specializes in Brazilian “choros.” The choro genre draws inspiration from and combines diverse musical styles, such as Brazilian folk music, African rhythms, and European classical music. And, as every year, the program includes a talk about the Festival's founder, Annette Celine.