Symposium: “Judaism in Opera”

On the occasion of the premiere of Jacques Fromental Halévy’s La Juive (directed by Peter Konwitschny) at Opera Gent, the European Academy of Music Theatre, the Opera Vlaanderen and the Institute of Jewish Studies, University of Antwerp, are organising the international conference Judaism in Opera on 15 and 16 April 2015 in Ghent and Antwerp. Contributions by internationally renowned researchers as well as distinguished practitioners of music theatre will explore the question of how Jewish culture influenced history and reception of opera from various points of view. To contextualise the issues of dealing with Jewish topics, biblical subjects, and concepts of “staging Judaism”, another focal point will be on the work of Jewish operatic artists and the relevance of their cultural background to their accomplishments.With contributions by Fania Oz-Salzberger (University of Haifa), Aviel Cahn (Opera Vlaanderen), Ruth HaCohen (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Andor Iszák (Europäisches Zentrum für Jüdische Musik, Hannover), Neil Shicoff, Ioan Holender, Julie Brown (Royal Holloway University of London), David Conway (University College London), Erik Levi (Royal Holloway University of London), Anat Feinberg (Universität Heidelberg), Chaya Czernowin (Harvard University Boston), Massimo Acanfora Torrefranca (The Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya), Barrie Kosky (Komische Oper Berlin), Mathias Spohr, Hilde Haider (Universität Wien), Peter Konwitschny, Moshe Leiser, Jossi Wieler (Oper Stuttgart), John Deathridge (King’s College London)
. 5 MBJudaism in Opera Programme