Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Diva Thrust Into Starring Role at Masada

An Israeli understudy for the role of Carmen, in the opera being performed at the foot of Masada, was thrust on stage opening night after the star last her voice in the dry desert air.

Na’ama Goldman, 27, who served as the cover, or understudy, who stands in for the lead international soloists in rehearsals until they arrive from overseas for the dress rehearsals and performances, took over for international opera soloist Nancy Fabiola Herrera for the second act of opening night on June 8. The second Carmen, Italian Anna Malavesi, who was scheduled to perform in rotation with Herrera, had been injured during an earlier rehearsal and was not ready to go on stage.

Two days earlier, Goldman had been called on at the last minute to take over for Malavesi during the dress rehearsal, the first time she had ever performed on the stage itself.

This is the third year that the Israel Opera has staged a performance at Masada.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:

  • Credit the Forward
  • Retain our pixel
  • Preserve our canonical link in Google search
  • Add a noindex tag in Google search

See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.