ENTERTAINMENT DINNER PRICES BACK TO 10 YEARS AGO AT OUR SOUTHFIELD LOCATION HAPPY PASSOVER Good Magic Continued from preceding page WING HONG 18203 W. 10 Mile Rd. at Southfield Rd. • 569-5527 r I COUPON I YAW) BONE. BARB OPEN 7 DAYS — 11 a.m. to 12 Mid. BAR-B-Q SLAB FOR 2 $10.95 INCLUDES: 2 POTATOES, 2 COLE SLAWS AND BREAD FOR 2 $7.85 INCLUDES: 2 POTATOES, 2 COLE SLAWS AND BREAD FOR 2 BAR-B-Q CHICKEN FOR 2 • , • t . ,.„,. HAPPY PASSOVER Coupon expires 4-8-88 JN TRY OUR DAILY SPECIALS MON.-FRI. (Inquire Within) L FARMINGTON HILLS — 851-7000 31006 ORCHARD LAKE RD. AT 14 I LIVONIA — 427-6500 30843 PLYMOUTH RD. It.1 > f HAPPY PASSOVER COUPON J HAPPY PASSOVER LQ1 FAMILY DINING 29267 SOUTHFIELD (IN FARRELL SHOPPING PLAZA) BET. 12 & 13 569.1112 • • • • • • • • • 2 FOR 1 COMPLETE CARRY-OUT AND CATERING 68 50 FRESH WHITE FISH BRAISED LAMB BONELESS BREAST OF CHICKEN VEGETARIAN PLATE STUFFED GRAPE LEAVES (Reg. or Meat) FOR CHICKEN KABOB TWO! BROILED SCROD SHISH KABOB 6 DAYS A WEEK FROM 3 p.m. 1/2 MOUSSAKA, 1/2 SPINACH PIE TOES. THRU SUN. FRIDAY, APRIL 1, 1988 ALL DINNERS INCLUDE: SOUP OR SALAD, RICE OR POT., VEG. & HOMEMADE PITA BREAD OR GREEK BREAD JN mersed in the mysteries of the kabbalah, the Jewish mystical tradition. The kabbalah has an honorable history in Judaism as a path toward knowledge of God and His secrets of Crea- tion and Redemption. Folk tradition emphasized not the kabbalah's esoteric elements, but rather its underside — "practical kaballah" — that is, magic. It is through magic that the heroes discomfit the Baba Yaga, but Lebenbom and Starkman say the resolu- tion is more than just a func- tion of "good magic versus bad magic." The resolution to the con- flict, say the two composers, comes through negotiation and compromise. "Nobody dies in this," Lebenbom em- phasizes. "Nobody gets everything. It's important for children to learn ways of con- flict resolution other than shooting." Lebenbom has composed such works as a piano sonata, which won the National Federation of Music Club's composition prize in 1970, a woodwind quintet and a set of solo pieces for oboe. She also wrote a chamber work to ac- company the poems of medieval Sephardic poets Shlomo Ibn Gavirol and Yehudah Halevi. It was a children's work by Isaac Bashevis Singer, called The Fearsome Inn, which set the opera project into motion. Lebenbom read the book back in 1970 and discovered "that thing sings." Sensing that it would be a good basis for a musical piece, Lebenbom approached Starkman to write a libretto. Starkinan, an oboeist and writer, taught at the Detroit Community Music School and was a founding member of the Detroit Woodwind Quintet. Together, the pair negotiated for the rights to the Singer story but were of- fered "a contract that was so rapacious that nobody in their right mind would accept it." Lebenbom and Starkman dropped the idea of using The Fearsome Inn and Starkman began to develop an original libretto based on her research into East European Jewish folk traditions. Shortly before he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1978, Singer appeared in Detroit. Lebenbom and Starkman approached the author and told him how their project was progressing without his story. "He said, 'If you make a hit with your opera, you can have my story, " Lebenbom recalls. "I said, 'If it's a hit, I don't need your story: A year later he won the Nobel Prize. "If no other distinction falls upon me in my life, I've told a Nobel Prize winner to go to the devil," Lebenbom says, laughing. The Jewishness of The Witch, The Wiseman and the Fool is not overt and is main- tained as a strong undercur- rent, according to Starkman. "We never say `kabbalah? We say 'the forces of good are greater than the forces of evil! " The composers' purpose is to appeal to a wide, not just a Jewish, audience. Starkman says that even so, the Jewish aspects of the opera are not trivialized, and that any Jew in the audience will certain- ly come away enriched Jewishly. "There's no question that someone who came knowing nothing about this tradition would come away finding out a lot," she believes. "It's ex- posing kids to the tradition." Lebenbom's music conveys Judaism in even more subtle The composers' purpose is to appeal to a wide, not just a Jewish, audience. Starkman says Jewish aspects of the opera are not trivialized, and any Jew will come away enriched Jewishly. ways than the libretto. You won't hear recognizable strains of liturgical music like Kol Nidre or folk songs like Tumbalalaika in the opera, and certainly no hints of er- satz Judaica like Fiddler on the Roof Still, says Leben- bom, "Everything that we have done is intertwined. It all has to do with our Jewishness. Things creep in unconsciously?' For example, Lebenbom was surprised to discover her uses of the number seven in the score, a number with religious significance in Judaism. She intones one line as an example: "Ba-ba Ya-ga is my name." The line has seven syllables. "I'm discover- ing them almost after the fact." In pursuing their project, the composers found that they had ignited an intense in- terest in Judaism and par- ticularly Jewish music. On the way to writing the opera, Starkman says she learned Hebrew and how to read the Ibrah, studied about kab- balah, numerology and amulets. She and Lebenbom taught a course on Jewish music at the Midrasha based on their research. "It's all an outgrowth of becoming involved in this pro- ject," Starkman says. For producer Marjorie Gor- don, it's the music that counts. "Our message is through the music, not through religion." That message may well be that there has always been an authentic Jewish component to Western music, a revelation that appears to have startled the three musicians. "We grew up being taught that there's music and then there's Jewish music," Starkman says, marking clearly defined areas on the table in front of her as she speaks. "Did Jewish music have no influence on Western music? It did. In that context, there's a place for this [opera] in Western music. But it's Western music, not folk music?' No date has been set for production of the opera, although several sections of the work have already been performed publicly. Mounting the work will depend on finances and a search is under way for a funding source. "The scale of moun- ting it will depend on how much money there is," Starkman explains. Despite the long road they have taken to the completion of their opera, Lebenbom and Starkman are clearly still very enthusiastic about their creation. It is as if they can hardly wait to unleash the forces of good, compromise and magic to do battle against the forces of evil. ❑ Southfield Marks 30th Twelve international dance groups, ethnic foods and beverages will be the bill of fare at the city of Southfield's official 30th anniversary celebration, featuring the In- ternational Folk Dance Festival, on April 17, at the Southfield Civic Center Pavilion. The event is sponsored by the city of Southfield, the In- ternational Institute of Metropolitan Detroit and the Detroit News as a fund raiser for the institute's ethnic enrichment programs. Among participating groups is Hora Aviv Israeli Folk Dance Troupe. Tickets are available at the Interna- tional Institute, 871-7600.