New Israeli Opera
New Israeli Opera is an Israeli opera house established in Tel Aviv, Israel, in 1985. Its predecessor was the Israel National Opera, which operated from 1947 to 1982.[1]
History
In 1982 the Ministry of Culture and Education decided to cease funding for the Israel National Opera. This led to the Council for Arts and Culture to establish the New Israeli Opera by brokering a partnership between the Cameri Theater of Tel Aviv and the Israel Chamber Orchestra. Uri Offer, at the time the general director of the Cameri Theater, was appointed general director of the New Israeli Opera, and Yoav Talmi, who was the music director of the Israel Chamber Orchestra, was appointed music director of the New Israeli Opera.
In the 1987/88 season the New Israeli Opera's first production was aired: Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell at the Cameri Theater in Tel Aviv. Operas are sung in their original language along with subtitles in Hebrew and English. In 1995 the world premiere of the opera Josef by Josef Tal was conducted by Gary Bertini and directed by David Olden. Journey to the End of the Millennium, a Hebrew opera based on A. B. Yehoshua's book was conducted and especially commissioned for the opera's 20th anniversary.
Since 1994 the operas have been presented at the Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center, which opened that year. The current CEO is Hanna Munitz and the Music Director is Daniel Oren,[2] who has conducted many operas over the years, such as Nabucco by Verdi and La bohème by Puccini.
Currently there are over 18,000 subscribers and 8 productions per season.