This Romanian baritone sings arias in Israel, even after Oct. 7
Ionut Pascu, currently playing Iago in ‘Otello,’ brings his audiences into an opera ‘bubble,’ while not ignoring the reality of living in a post-October 7 world
Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center
Ionut Pascu, a Romanian baritone currently playing the villainous Iago in the Israeli Opera’s latest production of “Otello,” feels comfortable enough in Tel Aviv that he recently helped unclog a traffic jam caused by a street protest.
“Everything was blocked for two hours, and we were all just sitting there,” said Pascu. “So I went to find the [protest] organizers, and I talked to them, and I told them, ‘We’re all human beings, we’re not enemies here, and people can’t be blocked for two hours.’ And they figured out a way to reroute the traffic.”
It’s not surprising that Pascu, 48, feels at home in Israel.
He’s been performing here regularly since 2011 — some 35 times at last count — and has spent 260 days here since October 7, performing in five operas in 2024 alone.
“They say I’m the most prolific foreign soloist here,” said Pascu, with a little laugh. “I wasn’t always the first choice for certain roles, but other people have been afraid to come to Israel, and I’m not. They can always rely on their old pal.”
He’s not fearful of coming to a country embroiled in war, said Pascu, who calls Israel “a turmoil zone” and notes that “bad things can happen anywhere.”
His performance in “Otello,” the Shakespearean drama conducted by Dan Ettinger and directed by Adrian Noble through February 13, was long planned, however.
This version of the Italian opera adaptation by Giuseppe Verdi features tenor Kristian Benedikt as Otello, Pascu as the villainous Iago and soprano Iulia Maria Dan as Desdemona.
Director Noble pushed forward the period of The Israeli Opera production of Otello to the early 20th century when Cyprus was under British rule after centuries of Ottoman rule, making it a more familiar time and place in history for Israeli audiences.
As for Pascu, he looks upon the messages of Otello relating to racism, deception and treachery as an invitation for reflection.
“It’s a black mirror of our society,” he said of the adapted Shakespearean tale. “Opera tends to be this black mirror, and sometimes the moral is don’t do this at home, because look what happens if you do.”
While Pascu has performed at the Israeli Opera house in Tel Aviv’s performing arts center, just across from Hostages Square, several times since the Hamas terrorist attack of October 7, 2023, when the war started, he’s found that life at the opera hasn’t changed much during the last 16 months.
“We may tend to be more serious about everything and evaluate everything, but the opera is a mechanism,” he said. “We’re in a bubble in this other story, that’s the whole idea, to bring the audience into our bubble.”
There are small details in each production that constantly remind both performers and audiences of what’s taking place in Israel, such as yellow ribbons representing the hostages present in the auditorium.
Pascu follows the local news because he wants to know what’s happening and, in recent weeks, to be joyful about positive updates.
“I want to know what the audience is thinking about,” he said. “I’m aware all the time what kind of situation the audience is in during a performance. So if I want to take them out of that a bit, to bring them into our bubble, I communicate with them a little bit more.”
The communication can be a small personal touch, such as when Pascu changed some of the Italian words into Hebrew during a performance of “L’elisir d’amore” by Donizetti in November, which, as it was staged in a kibbutz, already related to Israeli life.
“I inserted habibi and hamudi,” he said, using the Arabic and Hebrew endearments, “just to connect to the audience and of course it made them laugh. It was unexpected, even for my colleagues, because I kept it to myself, but checked beforehand that I got the pronunciation right.”
Pascu was already back in Israel in December 2023, just two months after the October 7 attack, rehearsing “Lucia di Lammermoor.”
He was onstage again in March 2024 for 10 performances of “Rusalka,” Czech composer Antonín Dvořák’s love story of a water sprite, the first major production hosted by the opera house after October 7.
When this production of “Otello” draws to a close and Pascu leaves, he already knows he’ll be back in March to rehearse for Richard Strauss’s “Ariadne auf Naxos.”
“After so many years, my Israeli friends are part of my family,” said Pascu. “When I’m here, I join their lives, whatever is happening here.”
