Sound of opera in Tel Aviv

ASPIRING Israeli opera singers are taking part in Tel Aviv’s International Opera Workshop, developing their skills with coaching sessions and master classes.

Now in its 31st year, the two-week event is being held at the Tel Aviv Music Conservatory until July 22 and attracts budding performers from around Israel and overseas as well as internationally-renowned opera professionals passing on their knowledge.

Ten of the events are open to the public and include two fully staged operas, Ravel’s L’enfant et les Sortileges (The Child and the Magicians) set around a mischievous child whose toys turn on him, and Rossini’s classic The Barber of Seville.

Among the guests attending the workshop are Dan Ettinger, who started his professional life as a baritone and is now a world renowned conductor who will conduct Tosca at Covent Garden next February, and Chen Reiss, who is singing the tragic Liu in the Israel Philharmonic’s performance of Turandot this month. Both Ettinger and Reiss are presenting master classes.

Other events include An Evening in Beaumarchais’ Garden that comprises arias from operas, and the whimsically titled Take Me to Your Lieder, which is a master class by vocal coach/teacher Armin Zanner and pianist Bretton Brown on how to sing lieder (art songs).

The workshop’s grand finale is a gala evening of arias, duets and ensembles at the Tel Aviv Museum accompanied by the Israel Netanya Kibbutz Orchestra.

The coordinator for the workshop is Israeli soprano Sharon Rostorf-Zamir, professor of voice at Tel Aviv University’s Buchmann-Mehta Music School.

HELEN KAYE / THE JERUSALEM POST