Synopsis
Hanoch Levin – the Opera is a collection of scenes from various plays by Hanoch Levin together with some songs that Levin wrote during his career.
Rubber Merchants
“That moment in the theatre, any second now a vibrant life will start shining here.”
Yacobi and Leidental
A strange and different love trio in which Itamar Yacobi decides to terminate his long friendship with his friend David Leidental and starts courting Ruth Shahash, who has a very big buttock. She tells him that she is a pianist as she describes the features of her buttocks.
On a Summer Night, Yossi’s Mother
The Gigolo from Congo
Two Shy Men and a Nervous Woman
The book The Gigolo from Congo features numerous sketches and songs with a variegated group of typical Levin characters. Here Genia embarks on a hysteric monologue of contempt towards her husband who has just asked her to pass the salt to the guest eating with them.
After Thirty Years
After thirty years, Max calls Beba hoping to rekindle the flame of yesteryear, but she is not really interested.
With Not Great Sadness, and Not Deep Grief
“With not great sadness and not deep grief, because time buries the sorrow next to the dead.” From the play Ketchup.
Popper
A huge catastrophe looms over the Schwartz family house. Schwartz is eager to kiss his wife’s little finger. But Schwartziska, has just picked her nose and does not wish her husband to kiss that very finger, yet she does not tell him why.
Bachelors and Bachelorettes
After Flotziska explains to Zneidoch that she is not really interested in him any longer, he starts courting Bulba who demands from him a promise to wed her. But Zneidoch is not really ready to fulfill Bulba’s demanding expectations, above all her current wish to stick her finger inside his… ass.
I Am Reuela
London
“Not that I’m under any illusions about London, London isn’t waiting for me, I’ll be alone there too.” From the play Suitcases Packers.
Schitz
Fefechts and Tsesha stand at the entrance of the wedding hall in the most exciting evening of their life in which their daughter Schprachtzi marries her beloved Tcharchess. But the only thing in which Fefechts is interested is to cover the cost of the wedding and he and his wife count the money and beg the guests to cover the costs entirely.
You, Me and the Next War
“When we are strolling than we are three, you and me and the next war.” This song was a central part of Levin’s first satirical revue – You, Me and the Next War.
Murder
In Levin’s sharp satiric play Murder, about the numerous ongoing murders that are part of the daily life of Jews and Arabs, the moment comes in which the characters try to stop everything and beg God for “one month of boredom!”
Chess
“Where is my child, is my good child all right?” a mother asks in this tantalizing song about leaders sending their young soldiers to battle as part of their own ongoing war games. This song was part of the satirical revue You, Me and the Next War.
Children Songs Medley
Levin’s children songs are biting satires dealing above all with death.
Yacobi and Leidental
We return to Ruth Shahash and Yacobi who is charmed by the combination of her body and her art. When he asks where is her piano she explains that more than a pianist she is actually a corrupt kitten.
I Live Day by Day
“They say our sun has been burning for a million years, how long can a person burn and what even for?”
What Does the Bird Care?
