Dr. Israel Adler in NYC

[Laura Wetzler <laurawetzler...>]

One of our most distinguished musicologists is coming from Israel and will 
be speaking twice in NYC this upcoming week. Dr. Adler was the founder of 
the Jewish Music Research Centre in Jerusalem.
Dr. Adler will be speaking at the Zamir Choral Foundation Conference: 
"Salomone Rossi -The Man and His Music" Nov.  10-11; Sunday, 1pm 
registration at Kaplan Penthouse (Avery Fisher Hall). Dr. Adler is speaking 
on Monday Nov. 11, 9:30am-11am at Ann Goodman Recital Hall  129 W 67th.
  Rossi Concert Sunday Night with The Western Wind and The Mantua Singers 
at Merkin Concert Hall 129 W. 67th Street. contact Zamir Foundation 
Fax(212) 3624662

Here is a press release from the Society for Jewish Music for Dr. Adler's 
Wednesday, Nov 13 Shaarey T'filah talk about his new discovery of an 18th 
century oratorio based on Queen Esther by Lidarti:
For Immediate Release
Contact:  Michael Leavitt
(212) 874-3990
VIDEO PRESENTATION OF ORATORIO ESTER OR TESHUAT YISRAEL AL YEDEY ESTER 
(?THE SALVATION OF ISRAEL BY ESTHER?)  AN 18th-CENTURY ORATORIO IN 
HEBREW  GIVEN BY PROFESSOR ISRAEL ADLER AT TEMPLE SHAARAY TEFILA ON WED., 
NOV. 13TH AT 7:30 PM.

On Wednesday, November 13th at 7:30 PM, at Temple Shaaray Tefila (250 East 
79th Street, NYC) Professor Israel Adler, renowned scholar of The Jewish 
Music Research Centre at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem will present a 
video recording and discussion of ORATORIO ESTER or Teshuat Yisrael al 
yedey Ester (?The Salvation of Israel by Esther?).  The lecture open free 
to the public.  Seating on a first-come, first-served basis.  For 
reservations call the American Society for Jewish Music, (212) 294-8328.

Professor Adler?s lecture will recount the inspiring recent  discovery of 
the 18th century manuscript of C.G. Lidarti?s  score, whose whereabouts 
were unknown for more than two centuries. The libretto by Rabbi Jacob 
Raphael Saraval of Venice and Mantua and the music were most 
probably  commissioned to be performed in the framework of   the Portuguese 
Jewish community of Amsterdam.The highlight of this lecture will be the 
screening of extensive excerpts from the video-recording of the World 
Premiere performance of ?Oratorio Ester? recorded on May 31, 2000 in Jerusalem.


Performers
    Israeli soloists and guest artists:
Adi Even-Or (soprano) - Ester  /  Chen Reiss (soprano) - Donna Israelita  /
David Zebba (baritone) - Aman  / Alexander Kaimbacher (Tenor) - Ahasveros /
Andreas Post (tenor) - Mordecai.
   Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra (directed by David Shemer)
   Tel Aviv Collegium Choir (directed by Avner Itai)
   Members of the ?Moran? Girls Choir (directed by Naomi Faran)

Conductor - Avner Itai
Music brought to light and edited by Israel Adler
with the assistance of David Klein
BACKGROUND

The work, which was recently acquired by the Music Department of the 
Cambridge University Library, is an extensive and hitherto unknown Hebrew 
manuscript score of an   18th   century   oratorio   titled   ?Ester?. The 
composer is the Viennese-Italian C.G. Lidarti (1730-post 1793), a 
Christian, who is known for his Hebrew works composed in the early 1770?s 
for the Portuguese-Jewish community of Amsterdam as we can deduce from the 
scores of his music preserved in the Ets-Haim Library in Amsterdam and from 
inscriptions in the community?s registry (pinqas haq-qehilah). It also 
seems that he sojourned for a time in London. Most of his adult life he was 
active as a professional musician in Pisa.

The Libretto of the oratorio ?Ester? was written by the Rabbi of Mantua and 
Venice, Jacob Raphael Saraval (1707[?] - 1782). His text is a Hebrew 
adaptation of the English libretto, based on Racine?s tragedy and 
attributed to John Arbuthnot and/or Alexander Pope, used by Handel for his 
oratorio ?Esther?.  Saraval follows the 1732 version of the English text, 
with quite a large number of omissions and some additions. Rabbi Saraval is 
known for his musical inclinations and practice: in an 18th century 
document he requested permission for his Yeshiva students to perform in the 
Mantua ghetto on Purim ?a kind of opera, based on a biblical story?. 
Permission was granted, ?provided that no Gentiles be allowed in the 
audience?. Saraval?s version is a well-crafted very free adaptation of the 
English version, and almost never a word-for-word translation.  His text is 
preserved in two manuscripts of the Ets Haim Library in Amsterdam, one, 
with rubrics and indications of the acts, scenes and characters in English, 
and the other in Italian.  Lidarti adheres to Saraval?s Hebrew text 
according to the Italian manuscript.

While Lidarti?s hitherto known Hebrew compositions are shorter pieces, each 
lasting 26 minutes, the present work has the considerable dimensions of a 
full-fledged oratorio lasting more than two hours. Thus, we have here the 
most extensive work of its kind discovered until now in the repertory of 
Hebrew art music in the 17th and 18th centuries.  The work is structured in 
three acts, each having 34 scenes. It is scored for the soloist voices of 
Ester. ?Donna Israelita? (an Israelite woman of Esther?s retinue), 
Ahasverus, Mordecai and Haman (with a brief appearance of Harbona), a 
3-part choir and an orchestra consisting of strings, flutes, oboes, horns 
and basso continuo.
Professor Israel Adler was born in 1925 in Berlin and emigrated at the age 
of eleven to Palestine. He pursued talmudic studies in yeshivot in 
Jerusalem and Petah Tikvah, later acquiring his musical education in Paris, 
at the Conservatoire National de Musique, at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes 
Études and at the Institut de Musicologie at the Sorbonne (Doctorate in 
1963).  From 1950-1963, he was in charge of the Hebraica/Judaica section of 
the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.

In 1963, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem appointed him director of the 
Music Department of the Jewish National and University Library. There he 
founded in 1964 the Israeli National Sound Archives and the Jewish Music 
Research Centre, which he directed from 1964 to 1969, and again from 1971 
onwards. In 1969-1971, he served as Director of the Jewish National and 
University Library. In  1971, he was appointed Associate Professor of 
Musicology at Tel Aviv University, and in 1973 he joined the Department of 
Musicology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Professor 1975, Chairman 
1974-1977 and 1987-1989, Emeritus since 1994).

Israel Adler initiated in 1967 the foundation of the Israel Musicological 
Society that he chaired several times. He was founder and co-director of 
YUVAL-France (Center for the preservation of the musical traditions of the 
Jews), Founder and President of the Provisional Council of the 
International Association of Sound Archives, Vice-president of the 
International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation 
Centers and member of the Commission Internationale Mixte of RISM and RILM. 
 From 1991 until 1997 he was member of the Executive Committee of the 
International Music Council of UNESCO, and in 1997 he was elected member of 
the Board of Directors of the International Musicological Society He was 
guest lecturer at numerous European, North and South American Universities, 
and Chercheur Associé at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique 
in Paris. In 1984 he obtained the ?Kavod? Award of the Cantors Assembly 
(U.S.A) and in 1994 he was awarded an honorary doctorate of the Hebrew 
Union College (New York, Cincinnati, Jerusalem).

Most of Israel Adler?s publications are concerned with Jewish music from 
medieval times to the emancipation of the Jews in Europe. Among his main 
fields of interest are the comprehension and disclosure of Hebrew writings 
concerning music, the rabbinical attitude towards music, the dialectic 
between oral transmission and written sources of sacred Jewish music, and 
the practice of Art music in and around the European synagogues in the 17th 
and 18th centuries. His research leading to the resurrection of the 
oratorio ?Ester? is an illustration of this latter aspect of his 
musicological aspirations.

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