Israel in Egypt

George Frideric Handel rendered the biblical story of Israel’s exodus from Egypt in his 1738 oratorio “Israel in Egypt”. Werner Ehrhardt now integrated this story, described in the Old Testament and Torah and alluded to in the Koran, into an extensive, interreligious musical project. This concert project combined Handel’s opus for the very first time with liturgical music of the three monotheistic world religions and new compositions. Experts of Baroque music were working together with Israeli and Arab-Muslim artists to develop a new approach to Handel’s works. In the form of a concert dialogue, they wanted to go beyond merely comparing musical and textual elements, and instead reveal new possibilities of intercultural encounter. The piece was performed in 2011 at the Handel Festival in Halle and the internationally renowned Israel Festival in Jerusalem, both of which are co-producing the project.

Artistic director: Werner Ehrhardt
Artists: Yair Dalal (IL), Yaniv d’Or (IL), Baroque orchestra l’arte del mondo, Tölzer boys choir

Venues and schedule:
Marktkirche, Handel Festival Halle, 5 Jun. 2011 (world premiere)
13 June 2011, Jerusalem (Israel)
26 June 2011, Theater Wittenberg
4 Sept. 2011, Bayer Kulturhaus, Leverkusen