Came With Love

"...Ella Milch-Sheriff and Keren Hadar took the well known biblical story and blended it into an exotic and ethnic mix that walks in the markets in tastes and odors, with phrases from the Middle East combined with Kurt Weill and music from the Renaissance. And it all combines together: the Song of Songs is built into a story and the music intensifies the divine text about one, bigger than life, love story.

Sheriff's use of different kind of drums combined with the English horn, double bass, viola, cello and piano which sounds here like a middle-eastern instrument, and the great esthetics of the writing and melodies ג€“ create a tremendous feat.

...Ella Sheriff has a breakthrough these years with a creative flood full of inner truth and she succeeds to make an immediate contact with her listeners.

Keren Hadar received in this work a chance to show all her abilities as an opera singer, but also as a master in rock and cabaret styles ג€“ and all in good taste and talent of two women who brought their united talent to a peak. This is a peak of the Israel Festival and of these two incredible creators..

I must also praise the wonderful musicians, the three male singers and the dedicated conducting of Tamir Chasson. This is a work about love that was written with love, and will certainly last for many years to come. And the audience? Raving with enthusiasm."

Ora Binur, Ma'ariv, 5 June 2007

A wonderful musical composition

"Dark Am I... is a wonderful musical composition. The music of Ella Milch-sheriff is comprehensive and conquering and the performance by Keren Hadar, with the three excellent young singers and a chamber group of musicians conducted by Tamir Chasson gave us a mesmerizing experience and a wonderful evening to remember.

Keren Hadar - Dark Am I

As the author of Song of Songs wrote about Keren Hadar 'Dark am I but lovely, who is this coming up from the desert, for your voice is so sweet and your face is so lovely'. Indeed this was an evening of sweet voices, of lovely music and of outstanding pleasure"

Danny Bloch, Israeli Radio, 5 June 2007

A love Song to the Bible

"...Ella Milch-Sheriff composed in various styles exciting music to the special editing of "Song of Songs", and soprano Keren Hadar, with her ultimate stage presence, presented it in a way that brought the audience to a standing ovation even during the performance.

The orchestration by the composer was excellent, as from the duet between the soprano and the French horn, until the tempest at the end, where the music describes the state of mind of the woman whose lover has gone away for good.

To sum it up ג€“ the various styles the composer successfully merged together into a fascinating composition won the audience's heart who rewarded it with a standing ovation."

Hagay Hitron, Ha'aretz, 5 June 2007

A lively Musical Feast

"...Other workshops and concerts exposed musical treasures... A string Quartet by Ella Milch-Sheriff had an excellent performance by the Israeli Contemporary Quartet and ended with a choral movement which was extremely moving..."

Noam Ben-Ze'ev, Ha'aretz, 28 September 2006

“I was trembling with excitement. It was shocking in the inner force of Nava Semel’s text and libretto. It was spine-chilling in the quality of Ella Milch-Sheriff’s music. I could hear how the tears pouring from the music, how it began to cry... This is one of the most superb operas ever written in Israel... It was stirring to hear choral pieces so electrifying in their poetry. And what a profound and brilliant orchestration. All the singers were superb. The girls of the Moran choir sang like angels. The Israeli Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Ori Leshman was at its best. Director Oded Kotler’s minimalist direction was brilliant.
If you miss this opera, the loss is yours. It is not just an opera, it is an event.”

Hanoch Ron, Yedioth Ahronoth

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“The three-sided encounter between Nava Semel’s story, which in itself is vast and powerful, Ella Sheriff’s music that heightens the content and underpins it, and Oded Kotler’s penetrating, implied and sensitive direction creates the kind of artistic treasure that Wagner termed “a combination of the arts” (Gesamtkunstwerk) at its best... ... The story, the music and the direction are palpitating in their force and perpetuate not only the Holocaust, but also the great talent of the creators of this opera.”

Ora Binur, Ma’ariv

“...it is the music which elevates the story to the point of manifesting in its own unique plane: on the one hand it is contemporary with no conspicuous structure that can be easily defined, it is sometimes intentionally disharmonic and chromatic. The opera is not built in the standard classic-romantic, recitative-aria form; it is a musical drama sung throughout, with many capturing harmonic and melodic passages. ... This artistic framework, which uniquely combines opera and theatre, is a spellbinding experience from start to finish. Through the writing of Ella Sheriff, the challenging Hebrew language came out comprehensibly sung, the roles are molded with emotional conviction ... in a nutshell, beautiful.”

Michael Handelsaltz, Ha’aretz

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“Milch-Sheriff has written richly expressive music to the extremely cogent libretto, which she wrote together with Nava Semel. Each circle has its melodic or rhythmic qualities and with very vivid orchestration she succeeds in giving rich and clear musical expression to Semel’s book. Each character and scene is blended into a texture of exceptional musical quality, like links in a complete and continuous musical chain. The music reaches its climax when Sheriff combines with innovative imagination liturgical music and the "other", contemporary, music or that music which symbolizes the future.

From time to time there emerge familiar Jewish motives from within the orchestra but without crossing the border into sentimentality.

...It is to the credit of everyone involved in the performance of this unique opera that they have not neglected the small details, those that transform the whole into a living organism.”

Zvi Goren, Habamah Internet Website

“Sheriff possesses a unique melodic talent... the melody is surprising, exciting, tastefully orchestrated, fully justifying the text for which it was written... The opera is performed without pausing for breath, scene follows scene as the emotions and dynamics intensify ... The libretto was written with cinematic perspective... An excellent performance sent an exhilarated audience home from the auditorium.”

Noam Ben-Ze’ev, Ha’aretz

The Ra'anana Symphonette conducted by Kynan Jones. World Premiere of Ella Milch-Sheriff's composition "Can Heaven Be Void".

The work by Ella Sheriff "Can Heaven Be Void" for a singer (Daphna Cohen-Licht), a narrator (Alex Anski) and orchestra, sanctifies the holocaust horrors, experienced by the composer's father.

The general and personal challenge of coping with the holocaust is enormous. Perhaps the private horror experienced by her father, endowed Mrs. Sehriff with the personal and yet universal purification evident in this work.

Similar as in Schֳ¶nberg's work "The Survivor of Warsaw", Mrs. Sheriff also immortalizes the horrors and the pain with a hand of a master, through appropriate and dramatic use of vocal and spoken parts by Daphna Licht and Alex Anski, who strongly imbued their respective parts with humanity.

The music is written with great sincerity and clarity. It conjures up spiritual sounds, and, as in Schubert's songs, it is supportive of the background, the essence and the interpretation. The heavens of Sheriff are in no way void. They are full and I hope she will continue to exploit her compositional skills.

Ora Binur, Ma'ariv, 30.3.2003

Dr. Baruch Milch

World Premiere: "Can Heaven Be Void" by Ella Milch-Sheriff. Ra'anana Symphonette Orchestra. Conductor Kynan Jones. Memorial Hall, Ra'anana.

George Bernard Shaw said: "A music critic is a person waiting for a miracle" and this time the miracle happened. Ella Sheriff presents her composition "Can Heaven Be Void". This work flows like a running streetcar passing along buildings in different emotional realms, which fall upon it to merge into one single body. What an exiting revelation.

The music is built upon fragments of the terrible holocaust memoirs of Dr. Baruch Milch, the father of the composer. Its impact derives from its simplicity, from its asceticism. Mrs. Sheriff does not whine nor does she scream out. Quite to the contrary. That is why it is so powerful. Jewish and Christian musical motives create a terrifying echo. The text (edited by Shosh Avigal) holds a sharp dialogue with the music. Alex Ansky in his role as narrator injects somber colours into the text like a virtuoso trombonist. The Soprano Daphna Cohen-Licht imbues a human touch into this hell.

The philosopher Isiah Berlin said: "No art in the world is capable of expressing the awesome events of the holocaust". It is a pity that he did not hear this shuddering work. The conductor Kynan Jones led the Ra'anana orchestra competently along the work's dramatic path.

Hanoch Ron, Yediot Acharonot, 30.3.2003

The work of Ella Milch-Sheriff, daughter of Dr. Baruch Milch, deals with the most horrifying fragments of her father's diary written during the holocaust in Poland. "Can Heaven Be Void", the title of the cantata composed by Mrs. Sheriff, expresses the scream of Dr. Milch in view of God's silence during those terrible days.

The performance of this work within the framework of a regular musical event, following a banal clarinet concerto by Weber, raises an ethical question as to the appropriate framework for the performance of a cantata of this kind. And is it not a jarring act, juxtaposing it to ordinary classical music designed to give us esthetical pleasure?

Regarding the cantata itself, its impact is way beyond all expectations. Sheriff succeeded in creating, as she herself states, music which is subordinate to the words and which, without any pathos, strengthens, decorates and accentuates them. The use of traditional Jewish melodies and, by way of contrast, Gregorian-Christian tunes, in the scene in which the contract is presented between the Ukrainian peasant and the Jewish family hiding with him, is really chilling. This scene ends with a pleasant ironic cord, which seals the words "the parties waive notarial legalization".

Mrs. Sheriff engaged two excellent performers: The narrator-actor Alex Anski related the terrible testimony of Baruch Milch with clear simplicity, and Daphna Cohen-Licht is wonderful, both in narration and singing. The Synphonette Orchestra offers its public this time an experience which, to say the least, is important and interesting, albeit probably difficult for many.

Hagai Hitron, Ha'aretz, 26.3.2003