One was from a day trip from Jerusalem that included a visit to a magnificent Roman amphitheater in Caesarea. Our guide, whose name I think was Yossi and who was then old enough to have had personal memories of World War II and Holocaust horrors, told of a Berlin State Opera performance there of "Nabucco." The Giuseppe Verdi opera is set during the Babylonian captivity. Sharing the stage with the Berlin company were legions of locally cast spear-carriers. He said that it "was the first time that the Germans played Jews and Jews played Babylonians." The word "healing" was not yet in vogue, but I couldn't help but think that this performance with all of its symbolic layers must have been a positive event for all involved.
A group of us spent three days hiking and camping in Judean and Negev Deserts. On our last night, our little convoy of Army surplus personnel carriers drove up to the back (west) side of Masada, the fortress overlooking the Dead Sea. We camped at the foot of a 375-foot-high ramp (story below) and hiked up before sunrise and before hordes of tourists disembarked from the aerial tram that comes up from the east. In short, we had mesatop to ourselves. A handsome young Israeli soldier, surely selected for his resemblence to Sal Mineo in the 1960 movie "Exodus," told the Masada story. Totally captivating. We made our way down the ramp and returned to camp before the first tourist-toting tram unloaded.
Masada is as iconic in Israel as a combination of Lexington and Concord, Valley Forge, Fort McHenry and perhaps Gettysburg in the US -- maybe more so. Herod the Great fortified Masada, also in the first century B.C., in case of a Jewish insurrection. In 66 A.D. the Jews in fact did begin revolting. A group called the Sicarii, whom newscasters might today describe as extremists, defeated the Roman garrison at Masada and took over the mesatop from which they then attacked Roman forces. The Romans tried repeatedly to uproot the Jews and finally succeeded after they built the ramp, hauled a battering ram up it and breached the walls. When the Romans entered the fortress, they found that the 900 Jews had burned all of their supplies and committed mass suicide. I can only imagine what today's media would make of such an incident, but Masada remains an Israeli symbol of Jewish survival, and soldiers are sworn in there. What a fitting setting for "Nabucco."
The "Nabucco" Weekend features sunrise performances of Verdi's "Nabucco" directed by Israeli conductor Daniel Oren on an elaborate stage at the foot of Masada, June 3 and 5. The gala concert featuring American soprano Jessye Norman accompanied by the Israeli Opera Orchestra will br on June 4 atop Masada.
Packages revolving around this performance are now available, start at from $668 per person, double occupancy for one night and the performance $1,769 pp/do for a weeklong country tour (May 31 to June 6) with the "Nabucco" weekend at the core. These prices are for foreign visitors only, and it is unclear whether Israeli citizens actually pay less. For package details, click here. When you go to the website and hear the "Nabucco" soundtrack, you'll want to book immediately. I sure did.
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