Domy Reiter- Soffer premieres his 23rd work for the Bat Dor Dance Company Called
Les Nuits d'e'te' it is based on pomes by Theophile Gautier set to music by his friend Hector Berlioz. Sung by different Voices, Soprano Kiri Te Kanawa, John Shirley Quirk and John Patterson.
Reiter-Soffer uses five of the six poems with great expertise and the overall impression is that it is highly romantic and vividly dramatic work. The costumes by Michal Gamzo and the effective lighting by Judy Kupferman.
Gautier sense of drama helped to influence Reiter-Soffer's eclectic choreography. One of the poems is called "Le Spectre de la Rose" embodying the spirit of Romanticism. A man imagines his ideal love when he experiences the perfume of a rose. "Sur les Lagunes" deals with a man's despair at the loss of his love as he strays near a lagoon. "Villanelle" includes the words "My love and I walk in the woods". "Absence" Speaks of someone longing to return to his loved one. "L'ille Inconnue" The unknown Isle conveys the question "My beauty where do you want to go".
The effect of the work is stunning and exciting worthy of its dedication to Mrs Batsheva de Rothschild.
Dora Sowden- The Jerusalem Post