Israeli review
Tourists turn to dust
Meirav Yudilovitch | Ynet.com | November 27, 2006
The stage adaptation of Aharon Applefeld’s novel Badenheim 1939 is a work of genius. Shohat’s music behaves like a text, a dance that accompanies the plot like a Greek choir, and a theatrical language that demands the spectator to make intellectual connections. The textual narrative is presented by the actor Oded Teomi, but all the undercurrents of the story are told through the music of Gil Shohat, the composer and conductor, along with the Israel Chamber Orchestra. Shohat’s music advances on two levels: the first is filled with the joy of life, honorable grand gestures, and hedonism on the border of decadent madness. The second level is made up of a threatening and dramatic orchestration, the poetry of lamentation, and the infinite murmur of weeping violins that seeps deep into the realms of horror. On the one hand, Shohat writes for dreamy flutes and singing violins. On the other hand, there’s the billowing menace of the tympani. The music serves as a drug that blinds and intoxicates the consciousness of the visitors to Badenheim.