Daniela Skorka had a hard time making her lovely, fresh-sounding soprano heard over the orchestral din.
By URY EPPSTEINJerusalem Symphony Orchestra(photo credit: Sasson Tiram)Jerusalem Symphony OrchestraGeorge Frideric Handel:‘Judas Maccabaeus’Jerusalem TheaterDecember 25Just as Christian children grow up with the belief in a gift-giving Santa Claus, every Christmas from kindergarten to an advanced age, so Israeli children are stuck with Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus tune all their lives, with a Hebrew text, which the multi-lingual Handel did not know, but which stayed faithful to his adopted English.In the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra’s performance of Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus, the sung texts were not always intelligible because some Israeli choirs, such as the Israeli Vocal Ensemble, mumble the texts so that they cannot be understood. The choir’s most impressive passage occurred when the orchestra was silent, in the “Victory Chorus.”Daniela Skorka had a hard time making her lovely, fresh-sounding soprano heard over the orchestral din. Alon Harari’s expressive counter-tenor was one of the performance’s highlights.Yuval Ben-Ozer, who is mainly a choir conductor, was conducted by the orchestra rather than conducting it, making no attempt to restrain the orchestra’s volume in order not to overshadow the choir and soloists. What was missing was a sense of enthusiasm of the choir.All in all, it was an accurate, not quite inspiring performance. Handel deserves more.
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