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| Yair Polishook (photo:Dana Pomerni) |
On March 11th
2017, I spoke to baritone Yair Polishook in Tel Aviv about his new
“crowd-funding” campaign for a new Baroque opera ensemble in Israel. A singer
familiar to lovers of opera and oratorio, Polishook’s main focus today is
opera, both as a soloist in the Israeli Opera and in foreign opera productions.
(He recently performed in a double bill of Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas” and Charpentier’s
“Actéon” with “Les Talens lyriques” in France under Christophe
Rousset.) Yair teaches a little, but has set his sights at conducting. During
his studies at the Trinity College of Music (London), he conducted a production
of “Dido and Aeneas”.
PH: I
understand you have a new project. How did it all begin?
Yair
Polishook: The Israeli Bach Soloists ensemble, directed by Sharon Rosner, was
disbanded over four years ago. We performed (mostly) Bach works, according to
the theory that there were few singers and no choir performing them. This was
highly interesting work for us as soloists and as a group. I have been
wondering where we should go from there and what ensemble we could form that
would be no less interesting. What interests me in particular is opera, so I
approached some of my colleagues from the IBS and other singers from the
Israeli Opera, with the aim of establishing a Baroque opera ensemble, in which
each artist would have the chance of expressing himself/herself to the maximum.
PH: Would
you need a large number of singers?
YP: No. Baroque operas may sometimes require that,
but we have found that working with a small ensemble creates a more organic and
interesting group…more interesting both to singers and audience. In my opinion,
a smaller group makes for more dramatic impact – each singer plays a character
in the plot. And I am a “stage creature”; I love theatre (and music, of course)
so my world is the world of opera. There are so many Baroque operas, of which not
many are performed in Israel; what also interests us is authentic, historically
informed performance.
PH: So, no
opera chorus?
YP: Well, it
is clear that Telemann meant there to be a choir, but we will work only with
soloists to try to create this more engaging experience.
PH: Who have
you approached?
YP: Daniela
Skorka, Einat Aronstein, Shahar Levi, Alon Harari, Guy Pelc and Oded Reich, a
real team of “all stars”.
PH: Who will
conduct the ensemble?
YP: That
will be my job. I studied conducting in high school and then with Mendi Rodan
and Avner Biron at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. So, I am
interested in extending that side of my career. For the ensemble’s first
program I will not be singing but conducting. But it may be that we will sometimes
work as an ensemble without a conductor.
PH: What
will the company be called?
YP: The
Orpheus Opera Ensemble. I chose this name, as the first opera we want to
produce will be Telemann’s “The Wonderful Constancy of Love, or Orpheus”.
PH: Would
you like to say a few words about the work?
YP: Yes. It
is a splendid work that was only discovered in the 1970s. Tel Aviv University has
performed some parts of it, but the complete opera has not been staged in
Israel. Only two recordings of it exist; so, you could say the work is not well
known at all! It’s time to perform it. One of its greatest moments is the aria
of lament Orpheus sings after Eurydice has died for the second time, as he has
not managed to release her from the nether world. Apart from the music, the
opera is very interesting: there is an extra character – the Thracian queen
Orasia, who is always full of complaints, hence her extravagant tirade arias… The
main character, it is she who sets the whole plot in motion. She is in love
with Orpheus and sends a snake to bite Eurydice, thus banishing Eurydice to the
nether world. And not just Orasia – all the female characters are strong women,
so this is definitely no chauvinistic opera! The opera is based on a libretto
by Michel du Boullay. The libretto Telemann used was written by Louis Lully
(son of Jean-Baptiste). In aristocratic circles of Telemann’s time, people were
interested in multilingual culture, the result being that in this opera the
recitatives are in German; some of the arias are also in German but there are
also arias in Italian and in French…and each in the musical style of its
language! The Italian arias sound like Händel’s Italian style, the French
arias closer to the style of Lully.
Telemann also knew Rameau and the queen’s very moving final aria could
be have been influenced by Rameau’s style. So, in wishing to keep up with the
taste of contemporary society and please his audience, Telemann has compiled an
opera that is nevertheless quite organic and very compelling.
PH: Who will
do stage direction?
YP: Shirit
Lee Weiss, whom I have known since 2010, when we were working together in
Menotti’s “The Telephone” and have worked together ever since in productions of
the Meitar Opera Studio and the Israeli Opera. She is outstanding in guiding
each singer to understand the character being portrayed, and, on the other
hand, seeing the opera in its larger meaning.
PH: And instrumentalists?
YP: We have
decided to collaborate with “Camera XV”, an ensemble formed at the
Buchmann-Mehta School of Music (Tel Aviv), a group only existing for some five
years, and running its own programs. Half of the ensemble has departed for
studies further afield, so we are enlisting some more fine players – Tali
Goldberg, Smadar Schidlovski, Daniel Tanchelson, Inbar Navot, Marina Minkin,
Netta Huebscher, Inbar Solomon, Yigal Kaminka, Amir Bakman and Nadav Ovadia.
PH: And a
home for the company?
YP: We have
decided to be totally independent, in order to show what we can do. I hope
that, in time, once we are up and running, we will have a permanent “home” in
which we can work. We are presently looking for a place in Tel Aviv.
PH: What for
you will be of prime importance?
YP:
Communication with the audience. I am there to speak to my audience, an
audience very different to that of Telemann’s time. The most communicative
element is theatre. Music can be very beautiful, but I want interesting
characters and opera narrative that will be fascinating and attractive.
PH: When do
you intend to debut the company?
YP: Next
season, i.e.2017-2018.
PH: So how
can we help the ensemble get onto its feet?
YP: By going
into Headstart, a site helping a variety of individual projects to get
established. The idea is very simple: as yet, we have no budget or donors, but
instead of waiting for them to appear, we want to ask people to buy tickets
ahead of time for our first performance, to pay its expenses (lighting, sets,
etc.) and to know that we have enough people interested in coming to hear us. You
might call it reversing the order of things. A single ticket costs NIS 150, two
purchased together will cost NIS 250. It is an opportunity to support us and
believe in what we want to achieve. And we have some other interesting options:
you might like to try a voice lesson, a conducting lesson (buy a ticket and
lesson together), attend an open rehearsal (always interesting) or engage a
private performance for some special occasion – 40 minutes of music with two
singers, for example.
It’s very
simple: you go into the site, there is a film clip about us. You buy your
tickets and, most important, when
purchasing tickets your credit card will not be charged…only if we reach the
amount we need to start the ensemble. But time is short: we have only to
the end of March to achieve our goal!
