A Jewish Opera Rediscovered

In 1774 the Italian composer Cristiano Guisseppe Lidarti completed his oratorio/opera Esther (t'shuat Yisrael al y'dei Ester) telling the story of Queen Esther and her rescue of the Jewish people from the murderous designs of the wicked Haman. Written for the Jewish community in Amsterdam using the libretto by Rabbi Jacob Saraval the work was lost until its rediscovery in 1998. We present this work in semi-staged form with period chamber orchestra, sung in the original Hebrew, as part of our "Opera Early & Ancient" series in March 2014, providing the work its US premiere and a rare musical celebration during the Purim season with this family-friendly production. CLICK HERE to see a clip of the only contemporary performance of "Esther" given early 2013 in Germany by our colleagues Le Tendre Amour.

 Our "Opera Early & Ancient" series presents operatic and related works from the Medieval through Baroque periods and has included such works as our "technicolor" production of Hildegard von Bingen's Ordo Virtutum ("Hildegard's little-performed musical mantra rang out anew" - Los Angeles Times) and the west coast premiere of William Boyce's Solomon ("The performance was often exciting and even eye-opening ... a performance other groups struggle to achieve on record" - San Francisco Classical Voice). Most recently our 2013 production of the medieval "Play of Daniel" was proclaimed by the San Francisco Examiner that "One could not have asked for a more entertaining spectacle ... a tour de force." However, our "Opera Early & Ancient" productions cost up to four times that of our regular productions ... and your help in bringing this rare, premiere performance of "Esther" to the stage will be greatly appreciated. Learn more about us at: http://www.sfrvoices.org