Netanya's amphitheater, in the central part of the promenade on the cliff is overlooking the sea. Musical Performances are given here on summer evenings. .

Here is a quartet, four musicians with a large array of instruments:

Yigal Meltzer, principal trumpet of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, has a bunch of trumpets lined up in front of him . .		Gan Lev with four saxophones (soprano, alto, and baritone saxes among them)
Amit Dolberg, a piano virtuoso, at the grand piano		Tomer Yariv, a magical percussionist, moving like a lightning between multiple sets of xylophones, sets of drums, cymbals, gongs

The music is contemporary, free of pretensions, pure in a sense, with amazing rhythms, witty, generously inviting deriving at my own associations (Stravinsky here, Gershwin there, Prokofiev perhaps, and real Shostakovitch...)
I actually liked is very much, and with barely catching what was said between the pieces ---in Hebrew--- it was like following what the musicians did ---blindly. What was that "Gertrude Stein" acapella? Was it serious or a joke? How to find out? With groups of excellent musicians forming and dissolving after a few performances, there is no audit trail... Oh well...

Later i was thinking how this performance is such an antipode to Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris (watched on the plane) which is all shallow, pretentious, the lowest imaginable common denominator, fake sophistication, trashy stuff (here, I said it!)

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***photos by JSF***

This is an annual Opera Festival that started two years ago with staging of Nabucco, and then production of Aida a year later. And this year it is Georges Bizet's Carmen. More than 400 singers, performers, dancers and musicians are taking part in this production of Carmen on a special stage built on the desert floor.

Watching the broadcast on a large screen on the cliff above the sea is a magical treat with priceless closeups on conductor Maestro Daniel Oren; searing Spanish dances, amazing costumes, live horses and donkeys, soprano Maria Agresta (Micaela); Anna Malavasi, an Italian mezzo soprano as Carmen, in the first two acts, and then the Israeli mezzo soprano Naama Goldman (age 26) took the stage... (Singing in hot and dry air of Masada is very hard, in addition, the sand storm had caused a number of the artists to suffer sore throats and stuffy noses.) The performance started at 9:30, under dark starry sky, and ended at 1:30 a.m. It was absolutely beautiful.

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It was founded in 1990 at Kibbutz Eilon and offers a three week intense program in string instruments.

The faculty consists of great string masters.

The young students are crème de la crème from different countries.

The days are filled with individual lessons, masterclasses and concerts of both students and teachers, a bit of archery, swimming in the pool, conversing with accomplished musicians, their teachers and their peers.

Violin- and Bow making Atelier Violin Maker and Restorer Adam Korman and Master Bow-maker Daniel Schmidt provide care of instruments and do all essential repair work during the program. The rest of the year Korman works in his Atelier in Tel Aviv. Schmidt's Atelier is in Germany.

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Concert

Kesher Eilon Concert Hall has terrific acoustics.

The concert that we attended was a Gala Concert with live broadcast in Kol HaMusika Israel Radio station.