'Theodor' returns to Israeli Opera

The opera attempts to answer why and how Zionism – and our own existence as Hebrew-speaking Jews in Israel – emerged.

By HAGAY HACOHEN FEBRUARY 12, 2025 04:41

THE ISRAELI Opera production of ‘Theodor.’ (photo credit: YOSSI ZWECKER)

Theodor, the Hebrew-language opera about the founder of modern Zionism, will return to the Israeli Opera next month for four performances only.

Co-created by librettist Ido Ricklin, composer Yonatan Cnaan, and conductor Nimrod David Pfeffer, the opera is a fictionalized, dramatic depiction of how the respectable reporter and Wagner fan Theodor Herzl jumped headfirst into a life-long mission of building a Jewish state for his people.

In Theodor, we encounter an older version of the self-proclaimed leader (Oded Reich) in dialogue with his younger self (Noam Heinz) in the dark Parisian night, with the mob chanting for the blood of another Jew who thought he was totally accepted in his own society – Alfred Dreyfus.

''The traitor: Degradation of Alfred Dreyfus, degradation in the Morland Court of the military school in Paris'' (credit: Henri Meyer/Bibliothèque nationale de France)

Exploring Zionism

The opera attempts to answer why and how Zionism – and our own existence as Hebrew-speaking Jews in Israel – emerged.

Theodor will be shown on Sunday, March 2, at 8 p.m., Monday, March 3, at 8 p.m., and Wednesday, March 5, at 6 p.m., with the last show on Friday, March 7, at 1 p.m. NIS130-NIS 390 per ticket. Hebrew with English and Hebrew subtitles. Tel Aviv’s Israeli Opera, 19 Shaul Hamelech St. Call (03) 692-7777 to book.