Jerusalem's top events for the week of June 2nd
The sopranos are in town, and we don't mean the kind from north Jersey. With Israel's second annual Opera Festival taking center stage in Jerusalem and at Masada, plus the Israel Festival, the 38th Abu Gosh Festival of Vocal Music and more, Jerusalem is heating up this first week of June 2011.
- Kick off the weekend tonight with an Israel Festival salute to Jerusalem Day concert at Gan Sacher, featuring Rita, Hadag Nachash and David D'or - accompanied by the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra as well as the Vertigo and Hora Jerusalem dance troupes.
Under the direction of Chef Oren Yerushalmi (his surname literally means "Jerusalemite"), Scala presents a special dinner following Jerusalem Day tonight,
with festivities to include live music and complementary cocktails.
Starters include green salad with roasted peppers and Jerusalem soup
with white beans, while entrees include seared chicken breast with sweet
potato and Medallions of veal filet with lentils.
- No need to wait until Sunday to go to church. On Friday afternoon, 10 churches and other sites around the Holy City host choirs from around the world as part of the Opera Festival (pictured). The programs range from young girls of the Bat Kol ensemble singing at the Dormition Abbey, to soloists Ayala Zimbler and Gabriel Sadeh interpreting Mahler at the Jerusalem Theatre.
- On Saturday night, Yali Sobol visits Beit Avi Chai to talk about his childhood of idol watching and pond-hopping - and to sing some of his most well-known songs from his rock group Monica Sex.
- On Sunday, make the trek to the Israel Museum's Youth Wing for an exhibit on illustrators from Bologna to Jerusalem.
- On Monday, the Sultan's pool swims in vocal acrobatics, as the Opera Festival hosts Verdi's "The Opera Jerusalem" for its closing night. You can't get much more meta than that.
- As one door (or mouth) closes, another one opens. The Abu Ghosh Vocal Festival kicks off Tuesday with concerts in the quaint village and its ancient crypts. A long-standing tradition of Shavuot-timed
classical singing performances, the
festival's concerts are performed through Saturday in scenic and historical venues,
including the 800-year-old Crusader-Benedictine Church and the Kiryat
Ye'arim Church, perched at the peak of the area.
The Jewish holiday of Shavuot begins on Tuesday night, with all-night Torah study being the norm among Orthodox sectors. Those looking for a non-traditional Shavuot night experience can check out the Tower of David's program A Garden East of Eden,
where mystically minded Professor Rachel Elior explores how the concept
of paradise has evolved in Jewish thought, followed by a tour of the Old
City. Another non-traditional option is Beit Avi Chai's interdisciplinary evening about soil as a source of creation and as a basis of ethical existence, including lectures by leading thinkers and performances by an a cappella ensemble and a sketch comedy troupe.
- On Wednesday, Shavuot continues, which in Jerusalem means the bleary-eyed and well-rested all make their way to the Western Wall for a mass dawn convocation, as they've done every year since 1967, when the wall was first reopened to Jewish worshippers. Most of the crowd is likely to head home following prayers to eat the traditional Shavuot holiday cheesecake.
There's plenty more to do, too - it's all listed at our full events section.
