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| Olivier De Sagazan (France): Transfiguation (photo:Didier Carluccio) |
The 2017
Israel Festival will take place from June 1st to 18th. With
the abundance of mainstream culture available in Israel, together with his
team, Eyal Sher, who took over the festival’s general direction three years
ago, has changed the emphasis and agenda of the program. Speaking at the
festival press conference at Hansen House (Jerusalem) on April 25th,
Sher articulated his aim to bring new art trends from all over the world to the
festival, pointing out that this year’s festival will host artists from 16
different countries. In its new format, the Israel Festival has nevertheless retained its
high standards, received awards and favourable critiques. Most of this year’s
events will take place at the Jerusalem Theatre, but also at the Sultan’s Pool,
the Eden-Tamir Music Center (Ein Kerem), with some street performances taking
place in Jerusalem's downtown Zion Square. The 2017 Israel Festival is dedicated to the
memory of Micha Levinson, whose artistic vision and humanity laid the
foundations of the festival’s core values, contributing immeasurably to the
establishment of its prestige both in Israel and abroad.
The
festival’s more daring fare means fewer works slotting into the once-conventional
categories of theatre, dance and music, with more stepping out beyond the
boundaries to engage in different genres within the same event. Take, for
example, the opening event – “Groove Party” – taking place at the Sultan’s Pool
(June 1st). Reflecting Jerusalem’s diversity, the three-hour program
will include such musical legends as Teapacks and Knesiyat Hasekhel, the Firqat
Alnoor Orchestra (Jewish- and Arab musicians) hosting singer Nasreen
Qadri, also queen of Israeli-Indian grove Liora Itzhak, Yemenite-flavoured
music performed by A-WA and Yemen Blues, as well as the funk, afrobeat, reggae fusion of the
Kutiman Orchestra.
An event not for the faint-hearted is “And What Will I
do with this Sword?”, in which veteran director, hypnotic artist and phenomenal
performer Angėlica Lidell (Spain) explores two real-life crimes of
horrific violence in a performance spoken in Spanish, Japanese and French (with Hebrew
surtitles) and lasting four and a half hours. Another multilingual performance
is that of Thom Luz (Switzerland) “When I Die – A Ghost Story with Music”, telling
the true story of an English woman communicating with dead composers in a
theatrical/visual/musical style, taking the audience into a dreamlike fantasy
world. “Based on a True Story”, French
choreographer Christian Rizzo places eight male dancers and two rock drummers
on one stage, combining archaic intensity, ecstatic repetition and folklore in
a show that has much to say about compassion, community and the world of men. The Israel Festival offers too many original
and different events to mention here; one unique concept, however, will be
represented in two events: “Night Shift” (June 15, starting at 8 p.m. and
running into the wee hours of the morning) will invite the audience to wander
around the various spaces of the Jerusalem Theatre to experience dance,
theatre, pop, DJs and video in an electrifying nocturnal time tunnel. Also, inviting
audiences to spontaneously amble around the Jerusalem Theatre, “Sound Charter”
(Israel-Poland) on June 7th will offer the festival-goer the opportunity
of moving between darkness and light, open- and closed space, listening from
close and far and of hearing iconic works of the past as well as contemporary
works.
And on the subject of music at this year’s Israel
Festival, early music aficionados will enjoy hearing Ars Antiqua Austria (June
2nd), Ensemble Tourbillon (Czech Republic-Israel) in a program
titled “Vienna 1709” and the Sarband Ensemble (Turkey, Germany, Greece), whose
program is inspired by early western music and music from the east - from the
Ottoman Empire to China! The Eden-Tamir Music Center will continue its
tradition of Saturday morning chamber concerts with musicians from the USA,
Israel and China. A large-scale collaboration between the Jerusalem Symphony
Orchestra, the Mendi Rodan Orchestra (Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance),
the Jerusalem Academy of Music Chamber Choir and the Chamber Choir of the Franz
Liszt University of Music (Weimar, Germany) is “Psalms” (June 7th).
It will open with a Persian folk song and will include Stravinsky’s “Symphony
of Psalms”, Bernstein’s “Chichester Psalms” and Israeli composer Tzvi Avni’s a
cappella “Song of Psalms”.
Forty years following the death of Tirza Atar, “West of
Here” (June 8th) is a tribute to the eminent Israeli poet,
song-writer, author and translator. In interesting new arrangements involving
oriental percussion instruments and contemporary electronic settings, Efrat Ben
Zur, Dikla, Yuval Dayan, Shlomo Saranga, Eran Tzur and Atar’s son Nathan Slor
will present a selection of the poet’s famous works in familiar- and new
arrangements.
The festival will include conferences, discussions and
master classes. In a different and original festival event, Israeli Ensemble Can’s
“Operation Silk Gloves” (June 6th, 9th,13th,
16th) guides will show people through the Israel Museum’s galleries,
subverting the established narrative with personal and thought-provoking ideas,
blurring the boundaries between spectator and performer. As to the
visual arts represented in this year’s Israel Festival, Yochai Matos will offer
a new perspective on the space of the Jerusalem Theatre lobby in a light and
video installation and, in “Distr(action)”, students, teachers and graduates of
the Musrara Naggar Multidisciplinary School of Art and Society, celebrating 30
years of its existence, will rearrange the Rebecca Crown Theatre on June 15th
for an event focusing on the relationship between sound, visual image and live
action.
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