Re: Dr. Israel Adler in NYC

[pinnolis <pinnolis...>]

I'm going to the Rossi conference, but can't stay as late as Wed. Is there 
anyone else from Boston attending the conference on Monday?

I did see Dr. Adler give a talk on this topic in London two years ago. It's 
very worthwhile. It's a fascinating story of discovery of the Ester 
Oratorio (and, of course, involves a great librarian-- in England!) Anyone in 
the NY area who can make it will surely not be disappointed. Dr. Adler is 
certainly one of our greatest living Jewish musicologists.
Judy

Quoting Laura Wetzler <laurawetzler (at) prodigy(dot)net>:

> 
> 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.
> 
> -- 30 --
> 
> 
> 
> 




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