REVIEWS
Milch-Sheriff has composed a compelling score that is modernist without being discordant. The libretto is metaphoric rather than realistic, but resonates with tragic power.
963 FM, reviewed by Paula Citron, Toronto, Canada, November 2009
“I was trembling with excitement. It was shocking in the inner force of Nava Semel’s text and libretto. It was spine-chilling in the quality of Ella Milch-Sheriff’s music. I could hear how the tears pouring from the music, how it began to cry... This is one of the most superb operas ever written in Israel... It was stirring to hear choral pieces so electrifying in their poetry. And what a profound and brilliant orchestration. All the singers were superb. The girls of the Moran choir sang like angels. The Israeli Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Ori Leshman was at its best. Director Oded Kotler’s minimalist direction was brilliant. If you miss this opera, the loss is yours. It is not just an opera, it is an event.”
Hanoch Ron, Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel, April 2005
“The three-sided encounter between Nava Semel’s story, which in itself is vast and powerful, Ella Sheriff’s music that heightens the content and underpins it, and Oded Kotler’s penetrating, implied and sensitive direction creates the kind of artistic treasure that Wagner termed “a combination of the arts” (Gesamtkunstwerk) at its best... ... The story, the music and the direction are palpitating in their force and perpetuate not only the Holocaust, but also the great talent of the creators of this opera.”
Ora Binur, Ma’ariv, Israel, April 2005
“...it is the music which elevates the story to the point of manifesting in its own unique plane: on the one hand it is contemporary with no conspicuous structure that can be easily defined, it is sometimes intentionally disharmonic and chromatic. The opera is not built in the standard classic-romantic, recitative-aria form; it is a musical drama sung throughout, with many capturing harmonic and melodic passages. ... This artistic framework, which uniquely combines opera and theatre, is a spellbinding experience from start to finish. Through the writing of Ella Sheriff, the challenging Hebrew language came out comprehensibly sung, the roles are molded with emotional conviction ... in a nutshell, beautiful.”
Michael Handelsaltz, Ha’aretz, Israel, April 2005
“Milch-Sheriff has written richly expressive music to the extremely cogent libretto, which she wrote together with Nava Semel. Each circle has its melodic or rhythmic qualities and with very vivid orchestration she succeeds in giving rich and clear musical expression to Semel’s book. Each character and scene is blended into a texture of exceptional musical quality, like links in a complete and continuous musical chain. The music reaches its climax when Sheriff combines with innovative imagination liturgical music and the "other", contemporary, music or that music which symbolizes the future.
From time to time there emerge familiar Jewish motives from within the orchestra but without crossing the border into sentimentality.
...It is to the credit of everyone involved in the performance of this unique opera that they have not neglected the small details, those that transform the whole into a living organism.”
Zvi Goren, Habamah Internet Website, April 2005
“Sheriff possesses a unique melodic talent... the melody is surprising, exciting, tastefully orchestrated, fully justifying the text for which it was written... The opera is performed without pausing for breath, scene follows scene as the emotions and dynamics intensify ... The libretto was written with cinematic perspective... An excellent performance sent an exhilarated audience home from the auditorium.”
Noam Ben-Ze’ev, Ha’aretz, April 2005
ARTICLES
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