Mothers

Original Israeli opera by David Sebba
Libretto: the composer and verses from the book of Genesis

The Israel Symphony Orchestra Rishon LeZion

Sung in Hebrew

English & Hebrew Surtitles

Performance Length: one hour and 15 minutes with no intermission

A coproduction with Gesher Theatre

- We thank Tova & Sami Sagol for supporting the making of the opera and for their long life friendship -

Prologue

"The mothers you did not remember and barely gave us a name," the mothers of the book of Genesis present themselves: "We silently donated our wombs to the Bible."

Scene i

God, in a soprano voice, confesses: "I loved to hate and loved to love… I enjoyed discriminating, choosing preferring… I murdered thousands because I was insulted."

Scene ii

In a short aria a nameless mother expresses her biblical mission: "The promise given to him while I was asleep…myself, myself."

Scene iii

Sarah banished Hagar and Ishmael to the desert.

Scene iv

The symbolic biblical place for a rendezvous – the well. By the well in the scorching heat of the desert the women, who are not as strong as the male shepherds are , must give drink to their children.

Scene v

God, in a sarcastic jealousy aria of Eve "because only women talk to snakes. They are faithful as the wind, they will sacrifice all… for an apple."

Scene vi

Lot's daughters tell their mother how Lot, their father, Was willing to give them to the maddening crowd in Sodom to do with them as the y wish . Lot's wife understands what her husband has done, she cannot bare the shame and the horror and decides to turn back.

Scene vii

After Jacob stole the .. from Esau and fled to Aram, Rebekah sings a lullaby to Esau in which she confesses her part in the stealth and that "mother loves you…but less."

Scene viii

Potiphar's wife lusts for Joseph. She is "hot, desperate" and wants him "like a man's wife."

Scene ix

The sisters Rachel and Lea, the wives of Jacob, meet after t heir father switched them and confess to each other: "How I cried, when he looked at me and called: It was not you I waited for, it wasn’t' you I wanted."

Scene x

The handmaids Zilpa and Bilha understand that their children have to stand upfront in the camp and defend with their bodies their brothers who were born to Lea and Rachel, as Esau is marching towards them with his soldiers.

Scene xi

The sacrifice of Isaac from the perspective of Sarah. The mother, who was never asked or told about the planned sacrifice of her lone child, ends the aria with her own sacrifice.

Scene xii

Noah's wife tries to come to terms with the new world after the flood, a world "so full of corpses…people and animals," and asks, "was it worth it to drown everything?'

Final scene

All women, "the mothers you did not remember," meet God who ends the opera with the words: "I have no more pity."