In recent years, the Israeli Opera has begun producing original works by local composers, but it is hard to imagine that any audience was prepared for the production of Hanoch Levin - The Opera, which enjoyed a brief run in February, after a postponement because of the war.
Read more:
Hanoch Levin is, of course, Israel’s iconic and most controversial playwright, whose plays and poems both shocked and captivated Israeli audiences for nearly the entire second half of the 20th century. His prolific output – 66 plays, a third of which he directed himself – reflected a range of styles, from absurdist to satiric to poignant.
This 2023 production consists of operatic interpretations of excerpts from seven different Hanoch Levin plays, as well as musical arrangements of songs based on the playwright’s poems. The sketches are performed in Hebrew, with English subtitles.
Besides the language (which is ordinarily Italian or another European language), another departure from operatic norms is that this production stars only Israeli artists – regulars with the Israeli Opera and/or the Israeli Opera's Meitar Opera Studio – with no guest vocalists from abroad. It is actually quite amusing to see familiar faces who usually play serious or tragic operatic roles suddenly switch into comedians singing and frolicking in farcical sketches.
The most entertaining sketches are the parodies, such as of the army troupes that dominated popular culture here in the 1960s and 70s, and even of the British royal family at the time of Prince William’s wedding. Other funny sketches were overtly sexual, with some bordering on bad taste.
At the other end of the spectrum are provocative sketches that strike at the heart of the duality of life in Israel, the prime example of which is the song “You, Me and the Next War.” The fact that we are watching this during wartime injects an additional dimension of sadness.
The good news for Hanoch Levin fans – or those simply curious to see how far the Israeli Opera is willing to push the envelope – is that Hanoch Levin - The Opera will be reprised in mid-June. See here for more information and tickets.
Also this month, the Israeli Opera will be presenting a work rarely seen in Israel: the fantastical opera Rusalka, by Czech composer Antonin Dvorak.
And now for something completely different…
As if Hanoch Levin’s excesses were not enough, the Israeli Opera is also hosting a most unusual production by the avant-garde Revolution Orchestra, The Passion of Monty Python. Readers already familiar with the iconic five-man comedy troupe are no doubt smiling now at the very mention of the name Monty Python.
The production projects Python’s zany sketches and bizarre animations on a giant screen, accompanied by original music played by a classical orchestra and a full choir clad in the somber black habits of Christian monks. The synchrony of the music with the slapstick antics – and even verbal expressions – on the screen was in many parts brilliant, especially during the hilarious Silly Walks vignette, starring the indomitable and incomparable John Cleese.
If some parts of Hanoch Levin - The Opera deserve an X rating, then some parts of The Passion of Monty Python should be rated at least R, for their depiction on the screen of violent scenes of bloody gore – some quite gratuitous, in this writer’s opinion – and sexual vulgarity, particularly in the song “Every Sperm is Holy,” a stinging spoof of the Catholic (and other religions’) stance on contraception and masturbation
The Passion of Monty Python, is derived from the group’s movies The Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life. The work is the brainchild of, among others, Conductor and Director Roy Oppenheim, while actor and singer Ben Perry was energetic and enthusiastic in his role as MC of sorts. Oppenheim and Perry even joined together in the craziness for an amusing sketch of the maestro and his cohort picking their noses accompanied by the music of the classical orchestra.
The audience appeared to consist mostly of people over 50, who looked like they enjoyed the performance greatly. And at the end, everyone gleefully joined in a rousing rendition of the Python anthem, “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.”
It is likely that most audiences would enjoy this production, providing they familiarize themselves first with some of Python’s most memorable skits. Unfortunately, as it is, too many of the skits reproduced for the show were cut short – which is a pity, since the 75-minute performance could easily stand to be lengthened.
The schedule of future performances of The Passion of Monty Python has already been expanded, plus extended to venues outside of Tel Aviv – Herzliya and Haifa, so far. See here for a complete schedule, as well as more information and to purchase tickets.