Tracks
Liner Notes
The Red Curtain Dance is another concert excerpt from Ben-Amot’s chamber opera The Dybbuk. This music was composed originally as incidental music for a 2002 theatrical production of the An-Ski play in Tel Aviv and was later expanded into the full chamber opera. The piece depicts a scene in which Leah visits the local synagogue to view the red hand-knitted parokhet—the curtain shielding the Torah scrolls within the arc—which she had donated previously. On her way into the synagogue, she passes Ḥanan. They greet each other gently and silently. As she approaches the arc, he begins playing to her while she begins dancing with dreamlike gestures. The dance—a combination of piety, melancholy, nostalgia, and eroticism—starts slowly but becomes increasingly intense, with gesticulations of frenzy. By its end, both Leah and Ḥanan are exhausted. Leah is led out of the synagogue by her maids, and she returns home. What she does not realize is that her beloved, Ḥanan, has chosen out of despair to return his soul to its Creator.
Credits
Composer: Ofer Ben-AmotsPerformers: Karen Bentley Pollick, Viola
Additional Credits:Publisher: The Composer's Own Press
