Yossi Mar Chaim

“Mamy” - A rock opera. Text and direction - Hilel Mittelpunkt. Music co-written with singer/songwriter Ehud Banay. Starring singer Mazy Cohen. The story is about a young woman who works at a gas station in a provincial small town and gets married to a soldier, a day before his draft  to the 1982 Leanon war. The same night he gets wounded and loses all his faculties. She puts him on a wheel chair and goes to a big city, hoping to better understand her fate .After many adventures she becomes a leader of a pro war party and leads Israel to a disastrous war. The opera was a big success, re-staged three times and adapted to a film which won the Israseli Academy of film award for best original score.

That was my biggest invasion into rock music. A year before I wrote music to Hilel's play "Netushim" (forsaken) which was political and included some rock music and then he wrote 21 songs, which he developed into rock opera, adding an actor to keep the plot going. Aryeh Moscona has an oldies rock'n'roll band and was very experienced. Finally got 3 solo songs, as well as acting and background vocals. I felt I cannot write a rock opera by myself and we called Ehud who did a marvelous work, both in writing and singing.

“three and one” - Songs from the score for the movie by Russian director Michael Kalik, starring Assi Dayan.

"Cherlika cherli" - The Chan Theatre in Jerusalem presents a new form of symbolic stage, where some of the characters are statues and the actors is a kind of a chorus without a definite  identification .The play (named after a folk street song) is a portrait of the growing Israeli native "zabar" with songs and quotations of folkish and literary ideas. Director - Ilan Ronen, playwright - Dany Horovitz.

Three Jazz songs based on the song of songs;   RIMONA FRANCIS sings, accompanied  by Danny Gottfried and band. 1969.    

Danny introduced me to Jazz piano in 1961 and I regard him as a great player and teacher. So when I was offered to write jazz songs on biblical text I asked him to head a band and I asked Rimona francis, a young jazz virtuoso with a diapason of 3 octaves to sing them. The result was a 45" single with 3 songs.

The Red Grass: Music for radio drama based on Pinchas Sade Story "HAESEV HA'ADOM BOER LEATץ Vocal- Elinoar Moav (1975)

Elinoar Moav was a very talented singer, known in Israel as an artist who had common recital with Mikis Theodorakis. I loved to work with Galey Zahal's Radio drama who gave me a lot of artistic freedom. This mystic tale (printed in1970) of 2 lovers roaming in Jerusalem night never got to the stage but the frame of radio broadcast let the listener's imagination wild with private associations. I played the piano ,Mamelo Gaitanopulus  played reeds.

50 fathoms -  1973ץ vocal - Rivka Zohar. Lyrics - Ehud Manor

A song created from the fable of the trees competing between themselves, which one will be selected to hang HAMAN. A Purim Jazz song with the help of the great drummer Arale Kaminsky. The famous agent of Rivka, PASHANEL, asked me to sing the song in the telephone before he approved and let Rivka to record it.

Journey to the land of the drum - The khan Theater - 1970, written by Yaakov Shabtai,   directed by Joyce Miller.

The play went through many changes, including changes of the cast and crew. With good story and actors it was not a children play,  but a bit childish for the adult audience. However, there are songs I would like to present. A road song (I am going to catch the moon) sung by Ezra Dagan and "The Land of the Drum" sung by everybody.

THE PINK TRIO 1984 - Israeli Festival, Jerusalem.

An interesting initiative of poet, theater man and lecturer ARIEH ZAX; He called singer Adi Etzion and me  to create an evening of literary and musical vignettes-many of whom he wrote or translated poets he loved like John Berriman, the earl of Rochester, Rabelais,  William Blake and others.  We all sang, acted and had a good time. After the festival we performed at the Tel Aviv museum. I still play some of that stuff.

Winnie The Pooh - 1972 - The ORNA PORAT children theater.

That was my first real experience with children theater, and I was lucky to get a good director (my friend Oded Beery) good actors (Poo was Yaakov Ben Sira) and a professional attitude from the people who created the most important  youth theater of Israel.

SHE'UR MOLEDET (Geography Class - for many years this class was called homeland class, though other countries were discussed on the basis of their connection to Israel) - 1983, The Kibutz Theater.  Author and director - Danny Horowitz .

This political play deals with the decision of colonel ELI GEVA to leave the army in the middle of the Lebanon war (1982) after finding out that this war is not about defending civilian life but about making a new order in Lebanon and capturing Beirut.

The technique used is very similar to his former play "Cherlika Cherli" where people and still figures symbolize different histories and attitudes. but here he is focused the Israel nation of 1982 and the disappointment of its inability to perceive its militant, inhuman character.

TOV MEOD - 1975-6

"Tov meod" was a different radio program, created by Dudu Wiser, a brilliant controversial writer who worked  in the Israeli broadcasting service (DIED 2020). He collected several writers, actors and musicians to make a monthly program. (Saturday, noon). The main inspiration came from radio man, writer and actor Dory Ben Zeev, who started to produce his own disc, "Go West", and included new arrangements  of his  contributions. Another great addition was guitar player Yossi Piamenta (who was nick named later as the Hassidic Jimmy Hendrix) .we had a lot of time to record in Kol Israel studio and in a bigger hall suited for bigger orchestra. Every program had a main subject: School, Bus. Restaurant, etc… I always brought a score, but Dory is a great word improviser and all of us supported him .The western song ( Ani Boker) is pure improvisation.

KADIMA BEITAR - 1978 in the Chan Theatre, Director: ILAN RONEN . Field work, further developing-  shalom keinan and Ilan Ronen. Actors-  Israel Gurion, Aharon Almog , Shalom keinan and many others.

The director had the idea to take a popular football team in Jerusalem, Beitar, which belong politically to the right wing , but was not violent as it is now. I, a leftist who left Jerusalem in 1970, am still a fan-   since I saw the team play as a kid  in 1950. We recorded fans, actors and managers, and came with a half documentary musical review in which every actor took the personality of some of the BEITAR's players,  fans ,and personnel. We had a band and the keyboard player, HAIM PERMONT, became a prominent composer and lecturer.  The 1st song talks of the magic of football generally and the  2nd - a fan song which idolizes the star, URI MALMILIAN who wear the shirt #8.  Both songs and many others were written by the director. Maybe this is not my best music, but I never had so much fun in the theatre since.