Shoppers and diners at the food court in the Dizengoff Mall in Tel Aviv were caught by surprise one day last month when 30 of their fellow shoppers and diners, and also shopkeepers and food servers, suddenly started to sing the Anvil Chorus from Giuseppi Verdi's opera, Il Trovatore, accompanied by a recorded full symphony orchestra.
Although dressed casually to blend in, and carrying shopping bags or lunches, the 30 were actually chorus members of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.
At the end of the performance in the mall, they unfurled banners advertising the Philharmonic's Viva Verdi concerts, some of which are scheduled for later this month.
The two great operas by Verdi, Il Trovatore and Rigoletto, will bring to a close the IPO’s 74th season. These concert performances, under the baton of Maestro Zubin Mehta, will feature international artists and the Gary Bertini Israeli Choir, 30 members of which put on the performance in the video below.
This was yet another instance of the flash mob phenomenon that is sweeping major cities around the world. Sometimes they are professional entertainers like this group, but usually they are amateurs who do it just for the fun of performing and watching the reactions of a crowd. Back in November we brought you the Nefesh b'Nefesh flash mob of 150 singers and dancers singing Hanukkah songs in the streets of Jerusalem, and in May we shared the video of 300 Taglit-Birthright Israel singers and dancers doing a parody of My Sharona, called My Schwarma, in a Jerusalem mall.
We like flash mobs, we think they're fun, and we'll be watching for more of them in the coming months. Enjoy!
(A tip of the kippah to Sharon Mosenkis, a Jewish Humor Central subscriber, for bringing this to our attention.)
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