Puccini gets a standing ovation in Nablus

http://historyviolins.blogspot.com/2009/06/puccini-gets-standing-ovation-in-nablus.html

As one of the more conservative Muslim areas of the West Bank, the city of Nablus may not be a place to expect an opera, let alone one with plenty of wine-drinking and skirts. But Puccini's opera "La Boheme" premiered here tonight to a packed crowd in the An-Najah University, put on by the touring Choir of London. I was really interested in seeing the opera here, since the social dynamics of Nablus are really different from that in Ramallah or Bethlehem.



The opera was entirely in Italian, but had the addition of a narration in Arabic at the beginning of the acts by Saleh Bakri, a famous Palestinian actor who may have been responsible for drawing a lot of the crowd. It definitely helped to keep attention focused on the scene.



The crowd seemed like it was from a fairly wide spectrum, with many from the college-age crowd as well as families bringing their children. I was half-expecting that the parts of the opera might cause some offense in the crowd, like when the dying Mimi's shoes were pointed directly at the audience (traditionally disrespectful in Arab culture).

But of course I was wrong. The crowd gave them a raucous standing ovation at the end which was really touching to see.




Some more of Nablus.

"La bohème" in Jerusalem

http://historyviolins.blogspot.com/2009/06/la-boheme-in-jerusalem.html

As I might have mentioned before, the Choir of London has come to West Bank to do a tour of performances, including Brahms's German Requiem and Puccini's opera "La Boheme."



A group of girls from the al-Kamandjati school are taking part in a scene of the opera which is really exciting. The rehearsal today was in East Jerusalem, and as I saw first-hand, getting past Israeli restrictions can be extremely difficult. In addition to the difficulties of acquiring permits for visitation, these permits can be summarily refused at the checkpoint.





Here was the group trying to get the permits and papers all together. The children had to bring a copy of their birth certificates in order to prove that they were under the age of 15, which would technically allow them free(r) passage.

In the end 3 of the 15 girls were refused entry into Israel and had to go back home.

The rehearsal was really great to see. Here are a few pictures from the rehearsal.




Also the time in Jerusalem offered me a chance to see one of the major things that I did not see last year.

...denn ihre Werke folgen ihnen nach

http://historyviolins.blogspot.com/2009/06/denn-ihre-werke-folgen-ihnen-nach.html

The first major project of the summer for al-Kamandjati is the Summer Music Days Festival, in which they are putting on 100(!) concerts of classical all across the West Bank in 10(!) days. The Choir of London will be coming as guests to Ramallah, and they will combine with a group of Palestinians to sing Brahms's German Requiem. Quite a few of the vocalist students in al-Kamandjati are involved in this; as anyone who knows about classical music would realize the fact that any teenager can keep up with this piece is remarkable!



I was invited by the singing teacher at al-Kamandjati, Julia, to go to the rehearsal of the piece at Bethlehem University in Bethlehem. Instead of just standing there recording the rehearsal and taking pictures I decided to sing along with the bass part, which turned out to be fine because the rest of the choir was sight-reading as well. The priest leading the choir agreed to let me do an interview with him next week so I could get more details on his history with the choir.



I will also be performing the Vaughan Williams songs for oboe and soprano, and maybe other pieces. The last few days have also been spent reorganizing the library, and I found that it is amazingly extensive; all the major pieces of the solo repertoire for all instruments are present as well as a huge number of orchestra pieces. I'm continually impressed with the resources of al-Kamandjati and the way that they are able to operate.

I have a few interviews coming up in the next few days which I will post writeups of as they happen.