Play of the Week: "The Magic Flute". Choice of Vesti
The Israeli Opera opened its 41st season with a production of Mozart's "The Magic Flute" directed by Nikolaus Habjan. The main visual device is puppets depicting the Queen of the Night and Sarastro alongside live singers. The cast includes Sava Vemić, Nofar Yakobi, Alla Vasilevitskaya, and Jacob Schad.
The Israeli Opera opened its 41st season with a production of Mozart's "The Magic Flute" directed by Austrian Nikolaus Habjan. The show, originally created for the Dortmund Opera, was transferred to the Tel Aviv stage by Gadi Shechter and David Kim. The main visual device is puppets depicting the Queen of the Night and Sarastro, with live singers positioned nearby. The director uses this to highlight the similarity between two mechanisms of power. The cast includes Serbian bass Sava Vemić (Sarastro), Israeli soprano Nofar Yakobi (Queen of the Night), Alla Vasilevitskaya (Pamina), and German baritone Jacob Schad (Papageno). Conductor Rotem Nir, according to the author, "danced through the entire performance at the podium." The article notes that Yakobi's voice sounded careful but without breadth, while Vasilevitskaya and Schad were the highlights of the production.