Librettist Charles Kondek and I have recently completed the opera Sarah and Hagar.  This two-act opera, with a running time of two hours and 15 minutes, is based on the powerful story in the Book of Genesis about the origins of the Jewish and the Arab peoples, and about the intense personal struggle that goes on in the family of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar over the birth of their children Isaac and Ishmael.

    The first act of the opera was presented in concert form in 2005; a CD recording of that performance, with Elizabeth Shammash, Ilana Davidson, and Robert Gardner in the principal roles, and conducted by Michael Adelson, is available by contacting gerald@geraldcohenmusic.com, or by download from oySongs.

For more information, including a full synopsis:

gerald@geraldcohenmusic.com

SCARSDALE (N.Y.) INQUIRER: MAY 2, 2005

Bible story provides “fertile” material for new opera

By DEBRA BANERJEE

    Neither Mozart, Verdi, Rossini, nor even the modern-day composer John Adams thought to do it, yet the age-old story was ripe for the plucking, juicy with drama and conflict, tragedy and a complicated love triangle, the thematic lifeblood of opera.  But Gerald Cohen, cantor of Shaarei Tikvah, the Scarsdale Conservative Congregation, did.  He is composing an opera based on the story of Sarah and Abraham and Hagar in the Bible’s Book of Genesis, and in doing so, he joins the ranks of American composers contributing to the new opera boom in the United States.

    Read entire article

Audio Excerpts from Sarah and Hagar:

from Scene 1: Lullaby (Sarah and Hagar)

from Scene 2: Aria (Avraham)

from Scene 3: Trio (Avraham, Hagar, Sarah)

from Scene 6: Ensemble (Chorus, Avraham)

Principal roles:

Sarah, mezzo soprano

Hagar, high lyric soprano

Avraham (Abraham), baritone

Supporting roles:

3 men (announcing the birth of Itshak): tenor, baritone and bass

Ishmael as a boy, mezzo soprano (played by child or woman)

Itzhak (Isaac) as a small boy, non-singing role

Ishmael as a grown man, baritone

Itzhak (Isaac) as a grown man, tenor

Ensemble:

Chorus

Chamber ensemble: flute, clarinet, violin, viola, cello, piano