Pittsburgh – Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival presents The Dybbuk: Between Two Worlds, the classic tale of love and mystical possession in a new adaptation April 25 and 28 at 7:30pm at the New Hazlett Theater, 6 Allegheny Square, Northside.

A young woman, Leah, near-death, awakens to the whisper of a clarinet.  She slowly realizes the sound is the spirit of her dead lover Hannan.  As the rest of the opera unfolds in flashback, she must choose between life with a man she does not know and death with her beloved, who has possessed her as a Dybbuk; a deceased soul who takes possession of a living body.

The music intertwines folk elements with contemporary textures to create a haunting, self-contained world, while multiple video projections and dance combine to tell a powerful story of faith, mysticism, and passion between two ill-fated lovers.

Part of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s “Music for the Spirit Festival”,  the multimedia chamber opera composed by Ofer Ben-Amots and inspired by the timeless Yiddish play The Dybbuk: Between Two Worlds features Yahli Toren, soprano; Gilad Harel, clarinet; Guenko Guechev, baritone, actor Leon S. Zionts and the Pappert Women’s Chorale, Children’s Festival Chorus as well as members of Pittsburgh’s Texture Contemporary Ballet. The Dybbuk is sung in Hebrew, with English supertitles.

 “…transcendent” – Houston Arts Week

Production Credits:

Composer: Ofer Ben-Amots
Stage direction: Aron Zelkowicz
Choreography: Joan Wagman
Video Art: Sheri Wills
Lighting design: J.R. Shaw 

Texture Contemporary Ballet
Alan Obuzor, Artistic Director, Dancer, and Resident Choreographer
Kelsey Bartman, Associate Artistic Director, Dancer, and Resident Choreographer

Pappert Women’s Chorale, Children’s Festival Chorus
Christine Jordanoff, Music Director

The Dybbuk: Between Two Worlds marks the 10^th Anniversary production of the Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival, an annual concert series devoted to improving cultural life for Pittsburgh’s Jewish and artistic communities at large.

TICKETS NOW ON SALE at www.pittsburghsymphony.org/dybbuk or call (412) 392-4900. More information at the Festival’s website: www.pjmf.net