Master Classes
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Lectures and Master Classes


Parallel to his activities as a stage-director, Jacobo Kaufmann holds master-classes for actors, singers and directors in various countries. Usually he combines this work with practical examples and productions with his students. Everywhere his teachings have opened new horizons, creating unexpected possibilities and options for numerous performers.

Some of the subjects of his teachings are:

Musical motivations for acting in the lyric theatre. The acting space. Sound creation through gesture and movement. The reasons and messages of body language. Sound masks. The production of vocal colour through an appropriate control and use of the muscles, and most specifically the facial muscles. Words and the senses. Conditioning of a mental state from the outside inwards. Musical language in the dramatic work. Visualizing music. Communication and giving. Management of emotions.

 Jacobo Kaufmann was the director of the Opera Department at the Jerusalem Academy of Music, where he taught acting, direction, and operatic and music theatre repertoire. Frequently he also staged operatic productions with his students.

 acobo Kaufmann is frequently invited to lecture at the Theatre and Musicology faculties at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Jacobo Kaufmann also lectures and teaches master-classes, in English as well as in Spanish, at universities and other higher learning institutions, at faculties and departments such as: Latin American Literature and History, Spanish and Portuguese Studies, Jewish Studies, Musicology, Theatre, and Music (Vocal Studies and Opera).

Main subjects :


  1. The Inquisition in Spain, Portugal and Hispanic America on stage.


    1. "Carvajal, (The Testament of Joseph Lumbroso)", by Jacobo Kaufmann, a drama about the clandestine Jewish Community in Mexico persecuted by the local Inquisition, turned into a grand opera by Osías Wilenski. Documentation, inquisitorial trial records, music score, libretto, and bibliography available upon request. (See CARVAJAL)

    2. The life and works of Antonio José da Silva (O Judeu), the most important Portuguese playwright in the XVIIIth. Century, born 1705 and murdered by the Inquisition in 1739, accused of judaizing. His works, inquisitorial trial records, as well as an extensive bibliography available upon request. Jacobo Kaufmann has published a book "Obras de Antonio José da Silva", Volume 1, with his translation of two of the plays into Spanish and an explanatory preface.

  2. Plays, short stories and novels by Jacobo Kaufmann.

    List of his writings available upon request.

  3. The life and work of composer Jacques Offenbach.


    Books on the subject written by Jacobo Kaufmann:
    "Isaac Offenbach and his Son Jacques" (Isaac Offenbach was a Synagogue cantor),
    "Jacques Offenbach in Spain, Italy and Portugal", both of them based on unknown and on never before published materials;
    "The Rhine Feeries".
    Illustrations, original documentation, and an extensive bibliography, together with more than 200 music scores, more than 100 recordings, as well as scores of Jewish liturgical music, available upon request.

  4. French operetta and Spanish zarzuela.

    Examples and bibliography available upon request.

E-mail: vn18548@netvision.net.il                                                                                                                                                            Espacio cedido por ARGENTORES