culture
Music
Very attentive
At the closing party of the good old Land of Israel, Yehoram Gaon and the audience announced: Here we are
A genius celebrated in the Hall of Culture with the audience in a kind of common worship of the past, with the nostalgia muscle working overtime.
Esther Ofarim left the hall stunned with beauty, the Gevatron sang to the oats and the spectators were delighted, in what sometimes seems like a farewell party from an ever-disappearing world.
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Yehoram Gaon
The Gevatron
Esther Ofarim
Nadav Menuhin
Wednesday, 04 August 2021, 09:17 Updated: 09:50
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A.
Yehoram Gaon may no longer serve as president, and yet in the show "Celebrating Gaon" that took place this week at the Hall of Culture, a somewhat national spirit was blown, with a fragrance of unity and especially a taste of yesteryear.
The audience that came to the Hall of Culture was, in an undeniable way, older or at least older in spirit.
Former senior members of the defense establishment could be identified in the audience, as well as nursing staff.
Among them, the generation for whom Yehoram Gaon is the center of the Israeli middle ground, no less a symbol than a singer.
Therefore, it was not just a kind of birthday party (the show was designed to mark the arrival of a genius of heroism, but was postponed until further notice after a mysterious virus began to spread around the world), but an event reminiscent of a kind of Independence Day celebration from another era.
When the 81-year-old genius enters the stage to the tune of "Shalom Lech Eretz Nehederet" and sings "Your poor servant carries you a hymn," it seems that this celebration is not dedicated to the singer alone, but to a common, nostalgic and pathetic worship of the state religion.
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A fragrance of unity and a taste of yesteryear.
Genius (Photo: Yuval Erel's blog)
B.
A genius has been on stage since the 1950s.
He was trained in an entertainment age where singers were also asked to be funny and vice versa, and in any case he likes to talk to the audience and win over it.
Especially here, on the most homely pitch there is, he does not need too much effort for the crowd to enter the game.
Even if the years have done their thing, he still has, for genius, a deep voice with all the familiar characteristics unique to him.
But now, he has let the audience sing the hymns, and they are becoming a very active part in the performance.
In fact, those present are so enthusiastic that it's almost surprising that they do not get up to dance, for example, "I did not like enough yet."
The mechanics are clear, with the nostalgia muscles working overtime.
A genius slices the substrate, and the audience imagines the songs as they sounded at their peak, joining them with all their might.
It does not matter much if it is completely accurate.
The song is repeated in the joint action of the two sides, sometimes to the point of transcendence.
Members of an exclusive club.
Genius with the Gevatron members (Photo: Yuval Erel's blog)
Gaon did not miss stories and songs on almost any station: the Nahal band, the roosters, the Yarkon Bridge trio, Casablanca, I Jerusalemite, A Thousand Kisses, Naomi Shemer, Ladino songs and what not. Old pictures on the screens, and old sounds on stage. "And" In the Orchard by the Trough, "" Night at Achziv Beach, "and" Come Out, "all humiliated the whole thing.
third. The first guests that Genius brought to the stage were members of the Gevatron, as well as the winners of the Israel Prize for Hebrew Singing - a club whose membership (especially life) is quite limited. In any case, if genius is a symbol of some "Palestine", then the choir from Kibbutz Geva is, as an image, at the end of this scale. They co-produced "Light and Jerusalem", as well as the Russian "Land of the Deer" and "Entertaining Spirit", and then left a stage for his friends. Alone, they did "Sea of Oats", "My Valley" and "Sixty" of course (in the background on the screen was the character of Ben-Gurion, the demon knows why).
And if we are already in matters of heritage: one of the band's representatives asked for permission to speak at one point during breaks between songs, and insisted that the Gevatron has been distributing Hebrew poetry on stage for 73 years and stated that the ensemble will continue to do so. She received applause, as did the oldest band member on stage, who received an exciting solo.
In one word: wonder.
Ofarim (Photo: Yuval Erel's blog)
Later, after a few more songs by a solo genius, he brought Esther Ofarim to the stage - "the greatest of them all" as he presented her.
Ofarim, truly one of the greatest Israeli singers of all time, does not live in Israel and rarely performs here, so she is largely the big prize of the evening.
Indeed, what she produced from it was a miracle.
In a clear and gentle voice, she left the Hall of Culture stunned.
They performed "Night Night" in a duet, and then she sang alone the classics "Relaxation" ("If There's Somewhere Far Away"), "There Were Nights" in a perfect performance, which led many viewers to stand up and applaud her, and another song very much identified with her: "The Wandering Song" ("Who will give a chicken") about the bird that wants to rest and has no nest.
Lots of passing words in your head worth describing these four songs: Beautiful, Pure, The Real Thing, Bravo, Gold Medal.
Everything dwarfed next to it.
D.
Another genius went back to training the muscles of nostalgia once more.
"Where Are You Beloved" ("The Days That Will Not Come Back"), and "Where Are Those Girls", continued with the commitment "We will not stop singing" and ended with "On All These" with the entire audience standing, as if it were an alternate anthem.
You recognize the pattern in the songs yourself.
Will not stop singing.
Genius (Photo: Yuval Erel's blog)
Yes, overall it was a celebration, as the title of the show, but it also seemed like a farewell party.
And perhaps better: the graduation party of the good old Land of Israel.
With a smile and an announcement that we will not stop singing and that the gospel will continue, but also with a common understanding that this is a culture that is disappearing, which miraculously evokes styles, concepts and memories that slowly fade into the collective oblivion.
And the songs are dying too.
Throughout the show it was impossible to avoid the thought that there would not be many more opportunities to hear some of these songs live, at least not in a way so close to the original.
Already today they are almost no longer heard, gaining only air to breathe in nostalgic tracks on the radio, public singing events and festivals of Hebrew song, on their way to a declining audience over the years.
So, full of pathos or not, perfect or not, the main thing was to hear and play the songs.
So the audience celebrated every drop they received, and a genius did not remove the smile from his face all evening.
Just because everyone insisted on declaring: here we are.
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