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Inscribed bi-lingual Hebrew-English book with numerous photographs in support of the Palestine Opera Company. It is comprised of two articles, The Hebrew National Theater in Palstine, and Four years of Opera Work in Palestine. The author, Mordecai Golinkin, founder of the Palestine Opera, has inscribed the English title page to Mr. Nathan Straus, writing, In memory of the warm feelings in the cold theatre in Jerusalem. From the Author, Tel Aviv, August 3, 1927. The names of the ten Pro Opera Building Committee follow, including such personalities as Ch. N. Bialik, chairman, A. Berlin. D. Bloch, M. Disengoff, and Sh. Salzam. The page concludes, “For particulars please apply to Tel Aviv, P. O. b. 64, Bankers: The Anglo-Palestine Co. Ltd. Tel Aviv.” The text in both parts is preceded by a photograph of Golinkin. Within the book is a drawing of the Temple of Art as conceived by the Architect, Mr. Z. Axelrod, and numerous photographs of actors and opera singers, primarily portraits but also scenes from operas. The photographs are repeated in the Hebrew and English parts of the book so the reader does not have to turn from one section to the other to see all the photographs. The text also includes accounts from the balance sheet of the Opera’s seasons and in English concludes with a record of a conversation between Mr. Strauss and Mr. Golinkin, the former beginning that the opera performance “simply enchanted me.”
The text begins with a forward that states, “From the first day of its creation, the Palestine Opera has aroused keen interest in the country, which has not waned for the past the past four years. . . . this institution has become a great favorite with the public, who on many occasions has shown enthusiasm for its work. Among the many appreciations of the work of the Opera, however, we have missed so far the opinion of the creator of the Opera itself. It was therefore our purpose, in publishing this pamphlet, to give the aspirations and the problems as they were visualized by the creator of this institute ten years ago; to see what the prospects are for the realization of his dreams and hopes on the basis of his experience during the past four years; and what it is necessary to do in order to realize these hopes and aspirations.”
Mordecai Golinkin (1875–1963) was a conductor and pioneer of opera in Israel. Golinkin was born in Izluchistaya in the Ukrainian province of Kherson and as a boy sang in the choir of Phinehas Minkowsky. In 1918 he became conductor at the Maryinsky Opera Theater in Petrograd. He conceived the idea of establishing an Opera in Palestine and gave a concert with the singer Chaliapin to raise funds for the project on which he published a pamphlet in 1920. In 1923 Golinkin immigrated to Palestine and in July of that year staged a performance in Hebrew of La Traviata, with local and guest singers, in Tel Aviv. His company, the Palestine Opera, gave intermittent opera performances until 1948, when he became conductor of the Israel Opera, a post he held until 1953. Golinkin's writings include this work, The Temple of Art, a volume of memoirs Me-Heikhalei Yefet le-Oholei Shem ("From the Palaces of Japheth to the Tents of Shem," 1947), and Ha-Historyah ba-Opera ("History in the Opera," 1961). |
