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A graceful person with a passionate
voice and a touching message: Nizza Thobi who has been living in Munich for
25 years. The Israeli singer’s new programme called "Gebojrn
in a sajdn hemdl" (born in a silk shirt) ranges from the ghetto of Wilna
to her beloved Jerusalem.
"Hemdl" means the Yiddish language
which is the mother tongue of her witnesses of history from the past war
time. The majority of them was killed. With big effort, Nizza Thobi has
collected remote poems and songs of Jewish victims and members of the
Resistance. "Yesterday, I read Eichmann' s memoirs again", she tells us. She
wants to know about the whole truth on the rioting against the Jewish people
and tell it musically to an audience being as young as possible.
By doing so, Nizza Thobi is successful
throughout the whole evening ending with "Ich hob dich zufil lib" (I love
you too much). A combined slide and music show brought the Jewish people and
its culture almost as near as in reality to the impressed audience in the
theatre "Theater Rechts der Isar". Everything that can happen if God sleeps
only for a short time! But even a short defective contact of the music
equipment did not interrupt the close contact between the stage and the
auditorium.
Challenging an audience with Yiddish
today? "This language is alive" says Nizza Thobi, "and can be sung
magnificently in a smooth way". Even Goethe was attracted by "Das sajdn
hemdl" and he therefore learned Yiddish and Hebrew. Furthermore, she teaches
us Ladino, the Spanish version of Yiddish, in "Nani Nani".
However, the programme which is a bit
too long can not easily be processed. The one who intends to listen to her
songs in the way he would listen to Klesmer, namely sitting there
comfortably and just consume them, will be disappointed radically.
The songs demand high standards and are
composed predominantly on a melancholic basis. Yiddish humour can only be
found after the break. >From time to time, Hans Jakob plays the tango very
lovingly and authentically on the violin with respect to the melody. Parts
of arrangements were written by Andreas Seifinger who plays the guitar
technically perfect and represents the tactful backing of the evening.
At the same time, the concert was the
presentation of Nizza Thobi's new and carefully produced CD. While listening
to it, one dreams himself into an engrossed world whose poetically encoded
texts are printed and explained on forty booklet pages. Everything is sad
but true.
Münchner Merkur No. 61 / 03-2000
Article written by Andreas Weitkamp
haGalil onLine 04-04-2000
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