As part of the Hatikvah (Hope) concert series from October 21-28, eleven different orchestras will perform across Israel in eight cities.
Created after the October 7 Hamas terror attack last year in an effort to offer musicians work despite intensive reserve duty service and give a public in mourning a means to come together and heal, it is the result of a lifetime of musical search by opera singer and cantor Sharon Azrieli.
“We have the mechanisms to heal within our own Jewish culture,” Azrieli told The Jerusalem Post of her discovery.
Azrieli's musical journey
Growing up in Canada, Azrieli fell in love with Hebrew songs and the culture of Shira Betzibur (Sing Along). The lyrics of Naomi Shemer and recordings by Esther Ofarim inspired her to cultivate her own musical gifts, eventually becoming a soprano with leading roles in Aida and La Boheme.
Her passion for Jewish culture led her to a unique discovery that linked Giuseppe Verdi’s genius with Jewish sensitivities.
“When Otello sings 'Calma come la tomba' [quiet like the grave] it is possible to hear the similarity to the Yom Kippur confession (ashamnu, bagadnu),” she told the Post. Noting that, when a trained person listens to the entire opera, traces of Jewish scales such as Selichot and Ahava Raba (Great Love; Phrygian Scale) can be experienced – enriching the emotional vividness of the opera.
In La Traviata, to name another example, she suggested Verdi used a Ladino song, "Adio querida," when he created "Addio del passato" for that opera.
As a cantor, she believes her role is to engage the kahal (worshippers) by reaching the state of kavanah (purpose-driven prayer, in sync with the theology of it). Unlike stage opera, where many other factors depend on a singer delivering the opera on time, sacred music is more intimate and the dialog between audience and singer is emotionally different.
“I take time,” she said with a smile.
Music after October 7
Due to her unbashful stand as an outspoken Centrist-Zionist, she was aghast at the flood of hate unleashed after Israel responded to the October 7 Hamas terror attack. Music, too, had seen its share of responses to the ongoing war – with the UK Royal Ballet and Opera refusing to bring their production of Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca to Israel next summer. The Israeli Opera announced that the production will take place regardless.
In Tosca, Scarpia says she makes him forget God ("Tosca, mi fai dimenticare Iddio!"). Azrieli feels that the tragic increase of synagogue shootings and Jewish voices from the Diaspora bashing Israel means many people had forgotten not only the Hamas atrocities, but also the greater lessons of the Holocaust and the immense gift of having a Jewish state.
“I live in Canada,” she said, noting that her sons do not serve in the IDF. “My sister lives in Israel and has two daughters who serve. I have no right to criticize Israel; I am not a politician, my field is culture.”
Thanks to the Azrieli Foundation, tickets will be offered to Hatikvah concerts at the highly affordable price of NIS 25 each.
As fitting a nation still in mourning, each concert will include a current adaptation to some of the best work done by composers who dealt with Jewish themes, from Ernest Bloch’s Avodath Hakodesh (Sacred Service) to Psalm 42 (Wie der Hirsch schreit) by Felix Mendelssohn, which Azrieli will sing during the closing concert, to be held in Kiryat Gat on Tuesday, October 28.
“In the past half-century so much great Jewish music was made,” she pointed out. “We wanted to make it easy for anyone to attend and enjoy.”
For more information and tickets: hatikvah.ca/