Despite concerns by at least one music promoter that Arab pressure has led to “cultural terrorism,” Israel's summer music bookings appear to be stronger than ever and Israel's originality in its own productions is stealing the show.
Last month, musician Elvis Costello canceled two concerts in Israel in the name of “instinct and conscience” and in the past week, three rock bands pulled out of the Pic.Nic festival in Tel Aviv.
But the Israel Opera Company has just completed a week-long series of performances of the Verdi opera Nabucco, staged at the UNESCO World Heritage site of Masada, the wind-swept Judean desert fortress beside the Dead Sea.
Nabucco tells the story of the Biblical King Nebuchadnezzar's capture and destruction of the holy city of Jerusalem and his exile of the Jews to Babylon.
The event, sponsored in part by the Ministry of Tourism, took three years to plan and cost NIS 20 million ($7 million) – and also attracted 4,000 ticket holders from around the world. “Never before have tourists come to Israel especially for a cultural event,” Hanna Munitz, Israel Opera general director told Reuters.
Renowned American soprano Jessye Norman and Georgian bass Paata Burchuladze, backed by a 120-member choir, appeared with conductor Daniel Oren, an expert in outdoor opera, for five performances and a gala concert. More than 100 actors, and horses and camels also appeared on the mammoth outdoor stage, where sophisticated lighting technology combined with superb pyrotechnics to produce the site's most ambitious musical project ever, on a par with the performances at Verona, Italy.
Plans are reportedly in the works to produce the Verdi opera Aida next year.
The enthusiasm generated by the opera contrasts sharply with the disappointment generated in Tel Aviv by the last-minute withdrawal of three grunge bands from this week's Pic.Nic festival. The Gorillaz, the Klaxons and the alternative rock band the Pixies all canceled performances, with the Pixies, promoted as “one of the most influential bands in the American alternative rock scene,” slated to headline the event.
But while the alternative rock bands have backed out, classic British rock stars Rod Stewart and Elton John are both holding firm to their commitment to perform in the Jewish State this summer. Singer Paul Anka also still is scheduled to perform here in August.
Promoter Shuki Weiss was disappointed and released a statement to the media expressing “sorrow and pain in light of the fact that our repeated attempts to present quality acts and festivals in Israel have increasingly been falling victim to what I can only describe as a form of cultural terrorism which is targeting Israel and the arts worldwide.”
Weiss lamented, “These 'sudden' decisions affect thousands of Israeli music lovers, turning them into victims and robbing them of a handful of hours of joy, adrenalin and culture, in the name of suffering they have neither caused, nor wish for.” Nevertheless, the festival is still on track, with the five-album, 10 million album-selling band Placebo appearing, along with the Editors, Hank & Cupcakes and Carusella.