Click below to view video clips from Culturemart 2008:

At The River * Colonnade

MOSHEH re-enacts the biblical saga of Moses as an ancient-futuristic ritual.

Created by Yoav Gal, whose style has been termed “Indie Opera” by New York Times’ critic Anne Midgette,  this work presents the new aesthetic in the realm of opera.   It has evolved in small spaces and with limited means, and draws on a wide palette of genres such as performance art, video art, minimalism, modern dance and virtuosic singing.

MOSHEH highlights some of the more obscure details and 'minor' characters found in the biblical text.  Moses' sister, his wife, and his two mothers (biological and adoptive) present a version of the story that is different then the one generally told.  Ancient, pagan traditions can be glimpsed in the details of the relationship of these mother figures and the evolving leader, in protective acts such as giving up a child for a river-bank adoption, or performing a blood-ritual circumcision in the desert.

Another axis of the work is the relationship of Moses with God, a jealous and fearsome father figure.  The piece is structured with God as the narrator (sung, chant-like, by an alto and counter-tenor in unison), and the ‘mother figures’ each with her own tableau.  The role of Moses is performed by a dancer.

The work does not attempt an over-arching narrative, rather it is a personal depiction of the leader in his early years, internalized and re-imagined by the creator in his own environment of contemporary, ‘grungy’ Brooklyn, New York, as well as in Israel, the creator’s homeland.  The work is an attempt to open a window into a reality that is foreign to our contemporary sensibilities, yet familiar in its human core.
 

“Music that is drawn to what’s next, not what has been… since the performance I’ve been curious to hear the rest of the work."
--Allan Kozinn, The New York Times
 
“Composer Yoav Gal Takes the most traditional Passover story, and turns it on its head.”  -- John Schaefer, Soundcheck, WNYC
 
"The singer’s piercing voice and facial expressions, costume — purple and accordion-like — and spiky hair captured the audience’s attention as a video played on a wall behind her.  Many in the audience had positive things to say about what they heard."-- Lizelle A. Vibar, New York Network, (nynewsnetwork.com) Audience Explores Young Composers’ Music.
 
www.yoavgal.com

My goal is the unification of the arts in the operatic tradition. The proliferation of new media tools, and a personal history of working within modest means, channeled my work into a hybrid of arts which I term ‘New Opera,’ a dramatic form which draws on an array of old and new mediums.

Next to elements that are usually associated with Opera, such as extreme stylization and vocal virtuosity, I also draw on mediums such as Performance Art, Video Art, and Sampling.  Sound and video images are captured from the real world, and then imitated, formalized and stylized.  Several of my recent works, such as Dr. King, and We Shall Fight, are based on recorded and “musicalized” speech.
 
Opera, for me, is a flexible term. The ‘operatic’ experience can be generated on stage, on film, through recording and text, or in any other forms yet to be explored.  At the core is the notion that I work in a dramatic form where music is queen.

Composer Yoav Gal specializes in the marriage of music and image.  His work has been described as "Indie Opera", (New York Times’ Anne Midgette), and as “livingroom opera” (Michael Gordon, Bang on a Can).  Born in Israel and residing in New York, he has created works for groups such as Bang on a Can Vertical Player Rep, Golden Fleece Opera, Kaufman Center/Merkin Hall, Real Quiet Trio, World of Awe, and other ensembles and individual performers.
 
His recent commissions include works such as Dr. KING, for the Bang on a Can (2006); MOSHEH, a mixed-media opera, for Merkin Concert Hall (2006), and We Shall Fight, for the Real Quiet trio.  Other commissions include VENUS IN FURS, a videOpera (2004) and BERESHIT, (2001), for the Golden Fleece LTD; THE DWARF, a comic opera, for Vertical Player Rep, (2003); solo works Ir Shel Shalom, for David Cossin, and Strangers, for Wendy Sutter; as well as chamber works for, Ensemble Pamplemousse, ICE, and Now Ensemble.
 
Gal’s recently released CD, Bit by Bit, Cell by Cell, a ‘virtual opera, based on Yael Kanarek’s “World of Awe”, combined digitally processed voice and sounds generated from discontinued Atari 800XL computer.
 
Gal is a recipient of grants from the NEA, American Music Center, Harvestworks, Franklin Furnace, and BCAT/Brooklyn - Rotunda Gallery. Born in Israel and a resident of New York since 1988, he holds a BA in composition from the Manhattan School of Music and an MA from Queens College, a student of David Noon, Nils Vigeland and Thea Musgrave.  He also studied visual art in Thelma Yelin School for the Arts, in Tel Aviv.  His fledgling cable show videOpera is sometimes aired on Brooklyn Community Access TV.