Mamzer Bastard is an opera by composer Na’ama Zisser, and the culmination of her doctoral residency with The Royal Opera and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. It is the first opera to ever feature and reference Orthodox-Jewish Cantorial music, with a role written for a Cantor.

In Mamzer/Bastard Zisser tells a story set within the Orthodox Jewish community, merging her own musical idiom with the Jewish cantorial style of the 20th century.

‘Mamzer’ is a Hebraic word that roughly translates as ‘Bastard’ – it denotes a person born from a relationship that is forbidden according to Jewish religious law. Through her setting within the New York Hasidic community in the 1970s, Zisser explores how much a person will sacrifice for their religion, their community and other people’s happiness.

Written for:

Six singers: mezzo-soprano/alto, countertenor, tenor, baritone, treble/child singer and a cantor
Chamber ensemble: vln, vla, vc, db, sax (sop+alt+tenor), cl/b.cl, Hn, trb, perc, pno & organ
Sung in English, Hebrew, Yiddish, Aramaic with English subtitles
Soundtrack/electronics  
All singers and ensemble are amplified
Duration: 1hr and 30minutes, no interval

Credits:

Music: Na'ama Zisser
Libretto: Samantha Newton and Rachel C. Zisser
Director: Jay Scheib
Designer: Madeleine Boyd
Lighting designer: D.M. Wood
Video designer: Paulina Jurzec
Soundtrack designer: Yair Elazar Glotman
Conductor: Jessica Cottis 

Original cast:

Yoel - Collin Shay
Younger Yoel - Edward Hyde 
Esther - Gundula Hintz
Menashe - Robert Burt
Stranger - Stephen Place
David (Cantor) - Netanel Hershtik
Aurora Orchestra

Premiere 14th-18th June 2018
The Royal Opera in association with Hackney Empire
Co-commission with The Guildhall School of Music & Drama