Chamber opera. Libretto – Aviram Freiberg after S.J. Agnon – 45 minutes, 2017

The story of Tehila is happening in Jerusalem, during the British Mandate regime. Tehila is an old lady (103 years old), who before dying wants to forseek repentance for an awful sin her father did to her fiancée, years ago, when he cancelled their marriage, which she believes led to a curse, that was spell on her, that brought her misery.

In order to adopt the short story “Tehila”, by Nobel prize winner, S.Y. Agnon into an opera libretto, that will coincide in style and number of characters with my other opera based on Agnon’s story, “The Lady and the Peddler”, I removed all the descriptions, and side characters and stayed with the teller, Tehila and the Rebbetzin. The Rebbetzin in the story, as well as in the music, is the antagonist of Tehila. Whereas Tehila is described as a very lively being, the rebbetzin, who is almost half the age of Tehila is very heavy, gloomy and lonely character.

The music is modal, though includes dissonant in abundance, and based on Jewish modes and melodies. I also use lite-motives, but to a lesser extent than in “The Lady and the Peddler”. The singing style varies between recitative and arioso, where the arioso is mainly being used when a character is singing a proverb or a phrase taking out of the holy scripts or the prayers. As the plot progresses, there is an increasing use of instrumental interludes, that from shot, broken fragments at the beginning of the opera develops into a main theme.