Little Opera was founded by Aviv Ron, Musical Director of the Israeli Chamber Orchestra Ramat Gan, and the stage director Julia Pevzner. The first collaboration of Ron and Pevzner dates back to 2001 and the world premiere of Moshe Zorman’s chamber opera Inn of Spirits at the Tel Aviv Festival of Performing Arts. The goal of Little Opera is to offer high quality productions of chamber opera and musical theatre, despite the cultural budget constraints in Israel.
A diverse repertoire is an important part of Little Opera’s artistic credo.It embraces a wide repertoire ranging from baroque opera to contemporary pieces by Israeli as well as international composers.
Since its foundation in 2006, Little Opera produced Pergolesi’s La Serva Padrona, Telemann’s Pimpinone, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Mozart and Salieri performed along with Russian romances, Poulenc’s mono-opera The Human Voice, Menotti’s Telephone, Mozart’s Bastien and Bastienne and, in 2011, The Diary of One Who Disappeared by Leos Janacek in a new arrangement by the late Zeev Steinberg, premiered at the Voice of Music Festival at the Upper Galilee in Kefar Blum.
More recently, Little Opera staged Rita by Donizetti and Savitri by Gustav Holst. In autumn 2012, Little Opera took great pride in performing the world premiere of Tamar by Marc Lavry.
Little Opera will continue to widen its operatic repertoire as well as experiment with new exciting genres of musical theatre.
Little Opera places great importance on engaging new audiences. Therefore, the operas are either performed in their original language with surtitles in Hebrew or translated or sung in Hebrew.
Little Opera has collaborated with the Israeli Chamber Orchestra Ramat Gan, the Beer Sheva Sinfonietta and the Voice of Music at the Upper Galilee Festival. Little Opera is part of the Tamuz 98 Association of Cultural Activities and, since 2010, enjoys generous support of the Israeli Ministry of Culture.
Aviv Ron
Artistic Director / Conductor
Esteemed for his elegance, precision and expressiveness, Ron’s concert programs find wide recognition for combining classic repertoire, performances of distinguished soloists and virtuosi, and world premiers of Israeli composers.
Throughout his career, operas were and are a focal point of Ron’s interest and activities. Following his graduation at the Rubin Academy of Music(Tel Aviv University), Ron did his postgraduate studies at the Wiener Musikhochschule in Vienna, where he founded the “Musiktheater Opus Modern”, an ensemble for staging contemporary operas. In spring 1992 he conducted the world premier of the opera “The Dying Man” (music by Sharon Eitan, text by Karl Kraus) and the Austrian premier of Wolfgang Fortner’s “That Time” (text by Samuel Beckett).
Ron is honored to have had the privilege of assisting some of the world’s finest opera conductors including Maestro Claudio Abbado at “Le Nozze di Figaro” and “Don Giovanni” (Wiener Festwochen 1991) and of Sir George Solti at “Falstaff” (Salzburger Osterfestspiele 1993).
During the season 1994/95 Aviv Ron was invited by Maestro Gary Bertini to join the New Israeli Opera as Assistant Conductor and prepared more than 20 operas in their original versions. In 1997/98 he took over the position of Chorus Master at the New Israeli Opera, rehearsing among others the world premier of the “Requiem to a Leader”, in memory to Yitzhak Rabin, music by Dov Selzer, under Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.
During his time at the New Israeli Opera Aviv Ron worked with distinguished conductors such as Valery Gergiev, Alain Lombard, Daniel Oren, Alberto Zedda, and many others.
His ongoing engagement with living composers was honored in 2000 by the Cultural Minister, awarding Ron for conducting the world premiere of the opera “Dear Son of Mine” (music by Chaim Permont, libretto by Talma Elyagon), a co-production of the New Israeli Opera and Israel Festival. In winter 2000 Ron arranged and conducted a special version of “Carmen” for the New Israeli Opera.
Aviv Ron’s celebrated series of concerts for the young audience and entire family greatly benefited from his rich experience in opera conducting and his profound understanding for staging, and directing. These theatrical concert productions, for which Ron, on numerous occasions, wrote the story boards and texts, established a new genre in Israel.
Aviv Ron is also a frequent guest conductor at Israeli orchestras, including Rishon LeZion Symphony, Haifa Symphony Orchestra, Be’er Sheva Sinfonietta, Sinfonietta Ra’anana, Ashdod Chamber Orchestra, the Kibbutz Chamber Orchestra and the Israel Chamber Orchestra.
Ron had many appearances in Eastern Europe, e.g. “Rigoletto” at the Opera Craiova, concerts with the Philharmonic Orchestra “Olentia” (Romania) and the Chamber Orchestra “Orpheu” in Bulgaria.
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