Description

Instrumentation: Children choir including 6 soloists and chamber orchestra: flute (picc), oboe, 2 clarinets, guitar, 4 violins, violoncello, double-bass, percussion: tamb.gr/Djambe, susp. cymbal, oriental drum, sleigh-bells
Edition: piano score
Year: 2010
Duration: 40′
Libretto: Yael Medini
Editing and translation: Tsippi Fleischer and Adina Stern

Commissioned by Cantus Juvenum Karlsruhe.
International Price for youth theatres “Papageno Award” 2012 for Sebastian Stiebert: Grand Prix du Jury for Stieberts production of “Oasis” by Tsippi Fleischer and “Brundibár” by Hans Krása with the Cantus Juvenum Karlsruhe

Order the performance material here.

“This children’s opera [….] is an amazing piece of art. Its catchy melodies were sung beautifully by the children, who clearly enjoyed performing the opera. […] Children and older viewers alike will find in it something that can affect their artistic sensibilities, or even affect the timeless idea of life. I hope that there will be more shows like the one in Rusovciach, and that the beautiful oriental and Old Testament themes will be revealed to more opera viewers.”
Dr. Michaela Mojligovä (Institute of Theatre and Film Research, Slovak Academy of Science) about The recent fully-staged, premiere production of the English version of Oasis in Bratislava

The children’s enthusiasm, mentioned in Mojligovä’s review, is also reflected in the moving letter which the composer received from Michaela Valentova, whose daughter took part in this production:
“Dear Mrs. Fleischer,
I am very grateful for your masterpiece Oasis. I was also very happy to see and hear my daughter sing in the opera, in the choir. I never thought that this could happen. But it happened.
Your music touched my heart and also taught my daughter about love and understanding between peoples and cultures. 19 May is written by gold letters in our family. Thank you for coming to Slovakia and for your support of our children.
I wish you best of luck and love in your life.
You are blessed by God.
Thankfully.
Michaela Valentova from Bratislava”

Also, the .IAWM Journal (International Federation of Women in Music) published a rave review of the CD which contains the world premiere of Oasis in its original German version (see also here). The reviewer, Meira Warshauer, wrote that this opera
“takes Fleischer further into her boundary-crossing journey. […] The opera is an allegory for peaceful cooperation, with the backdrop of contemporary Arab-Israeli relations hovering close by. Fleischer’s writing is most effective in the half-sung, half-spoken Mantra of Wandering sections. The overlay of solo flute arabesques, tube whistling, percussion, and instrumental punctuation, all of which accompany the chorus, creates a sense of wandering in vast desert spaces. Here one feels the effect of Fleischer’s immersion in the Sinai desert while composing the opera, as described in her notes. (JA WM Journal, vol. 19, No. 1 Pune 20131, p. 37) This children’s opera [….] is an amazing piece of art. Its catchy melodies were sung beautifully by the children, who clearly enjoyed performing the opera. […] Children and older viewers alike will find in it something that can affect their artistic sensibilities, or even affect the timeless idea of life. I hope that there will be more shows like the one in Rusovciach, and that the beautiful oriental and Qld Testament themes will be revealed to more opera viewers.”