"Only the weekend's final selection, Yoav Gal's "Three Weeks," seemed truly fresh: quite an achievement considering that its libretto, by Reuven Namdar, is in Hebrew, Latin and Aramaic and that its plot takes place around A.D. 70. An episodic stylized story of the rabbi who tries to save Jerusalem from Roman invaders, it manages to be serious without being ponderous.

Scored for three trombones, piano, percussion and double bass, the music has a brassy, sinuous klezmer flavor; its vocal lines recall traditional Hebrew melodies without seeming stale. From the start, with a tantalizingly strange short video element, there was a feeling of slightly manic, ramshackle energy. The piece is not afraid to play with operatic conventions, as in the Roman general's exaggerated coloratura, but neither is it emptily ironic. It was unpredictable — sometimes absurd, sometimes sincere — but with a core of real feeling. You didn't know what was going to happen next.

It's impossible to say what it will eventually amount to, but alone among the works at this year's Vox it felt new."

The New York Times by ZACHARY WOOLFE

"To say that Yoav Gal's "Mosheh," playing in New York City's HERE through February 5, is an opera about the life of Moses is to understate the exhilarating complexity of the work"

"Gal's score, by turns contemplative and deeply unsettling"

"The improbably psychedelic costumes (designed by Gal and by Heather Green, who also plays Bitia) are artworks in their own right"

"Gal invites us to peer into Moses' emotional landscape, which, for an archetypal savior, turns out to be a surprisingly dark place."

The Forward by Eileen Reynolds

"Mosheh," his compellingly idiosyncratic meditation on Moses and his relationship to the women in his life and to God, in that order.

Ms. Chinn also gave a lovely account of Miriam's gracefully lyrical opening aria, as well as the role's choreography of repeated, stylized gestures that give the impression of glitchy video.

Bitia's music, by contrast, is feisty and virtuosic, and Ms. Green's searing, powerful performance was spellbinding. Yocheved's and Zipporah's arias are melancholy and compact, and Judith Barnes and Beth Anne Hatton sang them deftly.

The New York Times by Allan Kozinn

"Mosheh is a lush, vibrant, and very contemporary new opera. Whether you fully understand the story or not, this multimedia theatrical event will take you on a fantastical journey of the senses."

NYTheatre.com by Anthony Johnston

Thou shalt hear this fine work about Moses

"... The gem of the score, though, is a quartet for the women narrating the plagues of Egypt, a virtuoso slow march of writhing vocal lines and sudden subtle modulations. "

New York Post by James Jorden

"There is much to be said for seeing a production that's so different from anything else you've seen before,
... the product of a distinctive and original creative force and a showcase for talented singers willing to venture into the strange reedy waters of the imagination, it deserves attention."

blogcritics.orgby Jon Sobel

There's very much a ritualistic structure to the work, at least in the hearing, and the audio alone makes the case for Mosheh as an innovative update to the dramatic oratorio. There are long instrumental sections that strongly imply an accompaniment to something on stage, and since this is such interesting and involving music, I recommend catching a performance even more than just buying the music.

The Big City. by George Grella

Composer Yoav Gal's entrancing chamber opera Mosheh is familiar to anyone who follows the city's contemporary opera scene

Indeed, Mosheh's narrative thrust is enchanting, intense and unorthodox. Think less Charlton Heston's Moses and more The Who's Tommy.

City Arts, New York's Review of Culture. by Ryan Tracy

"since the performance I've been curious to hear the rest of the work."

"Drawn to What's Next, Not What Has Been"

New York Times By Allan Kozinn

Composer Yoav Gal Takes the most traditional Passover story, and turns it on its head.

Soundcheck, WNYC John Schaefer

El Al Magazine by Asi Weinstein

... I highly recommend that readers see the full-length production as soon as it opens... Kristin Marting's direction, in combination with Yoav Gal's video design, Gal and Heather Green's costume design, and Juliet Chia's lighting design, furnished the opera with a surreal atmosphere that blurred the boundaries between space and time, and provided a temporary respite from normal life. At the same time, the hybridity of (the opera employed elements from dance, multimedia, music, and theater) facilitated a humanistic exploration of spirituality. I am eager to experience the full-length opera.

New Theater Corps by Eric Miles Glover

Obscene Jester Posted by Tweed

"The singer’s piercing voice and facial expressions, costume — purple and accordion-like — and spiky hair captured the audience’s attention as a video played on a wall behind her. Many in the audience had positive things to say about what they heard."
Lizelle A. Vibar, Audience Explores Young Composers’ Music.

"Perhaps this was music that was too pretty, but it gave a nice opportunity for the singers to shine."