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Re: Dr. Israel Adler in NYC
- From: pinnolis <pinnolis...>
- Subject: Re: Dr. Israel Adler in NYC
- Date: Thu 07 Nov 2002 00.22 (GMT)
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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