Israeli Opera to bring lighthearted love story to Jerusalem

The city of Jerusalem announced its latest cultural festival, a long weekend of opera in June, designed to draw local and foreign tourists to the capital.

The festival, planned for June 24-28, is centered around two performances of “L’elisir d’amore” (The Elixir of Love), a love story written by the 19th century Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. The opera will be performed by the Israeli Opera with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra on June 26 and 27 at Sultan’s Pool, an outdoor performance space situated under the Old City walls.

There will also be operettas, concerts and children’s operas performed around the city throughout the long weekend, aiming to draw adults and kids to the musical event.

“This will become part of the calendar of events in the city,” said Mayor Nir Barkat at a press conference introducing the festival. “This, combined with the marathon and Formula 1 and our other events, shows that something good is happening here, that Jerusalem is a normal city.”

The opera festival is being organized by the city’s tourism department, iTravelJerusalem, in conjunction with the Tourism Ministry and the Israeli Opera. Barkat said one donor already pledged $1 million toward the project, and he was looking for more donors in order to produce the festival for the next four years.

Hanna Munitz, the general director of the Israeli Opera, who manages the company’s two other off-site productions in Acre and Masada, commented that she was more than ready to recreate those experiences in Jerusalem.

“It’s a wonderful place for us to do this,” said Munitz. “Jerusalem is a place that everybody has to come to once in a lifetime. So why not come for an opera as well?”

In 2011, Jerusalem held an opera festival featuring a performance of Verdi’s “Jerusalem,” conducted by David Stern, at Sultan’s Pool. But the 2012 festival was abruptly canceled in the spring, reportedly because of technical and financial difficulties.

At Masada, where several months of work are necessary in order to set up the arid desert space for the production, last year’s opera wasn’t fully profitable, either. According to the opera company, the budget for the production of “La Traviata” was NIS 27 million ($7.79 million), and tickets did not sell out.

Munitz said it was still worth the effort, because they gained 2,000 new subscribers.

The diminutive Munitz, who has been with the New Israeli Opera for more than 30 years, is often credited with rejuvenating and popularizing the local company. She views the opera’s off-site productions as an important part of Israel’s international art tourism efforts, an opera festival in the tradition of other, more culturally established countries.

Last year’s performances of “La Traviata” at Masada drew 31,000 audience members over the course of four nights.

Sultan’s Pool can seat around 6,000 people at each performance.

Munitz commented that unlike other Israeli Opera productions, the Jerusalem performances of “L’elisir d’amore” will comprise mostly Israeli performers. The opera, a lighthearted love story, features “lots of sunflowers, bicycles and old cars,” said Munitz. “It has the feel of a kibbutz, 50 years ago.”

It’s also considerably cheaper than the tickets at Masada, which ranged last year from NIS 505 ($145) to NIS 1,305 ($377). According to Ilanit Melchior, who heads the Jerusalem municipality tourism department, prices will be much lower in the city, at around NIS 150 ($38) to NIS 200 ($51) per ticket. There will also be hotel packages available for tourists.