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FINDING ELÉAZAR
Directed & Produced by: Paula Heil Fisher.
Written by: Paula Heil Fisher, Jody L. Jorgensen & Matthias Visser.
Director of Photography: Peter Rosen.
Edited by: Jody L. Jorgensen.
Music by: .
Released by: Millennial Arts.
Language: English.
Country of Origin: Austria/USA. 78 min. Not Rated.

This documentary goes backstage and beyond of a newly revived grand opera to explore the subtly intricate and complex relationship between a demanding role and the malleable actor/singer, Neil Shicoff. The renowned tenor literally finds himself becoming Eléazar - the main character in Fromental Halévy's 1835 French opera La Juive (The Jewess) at the Vienna State Opera. In one scene, Shicoff argues with his agent whether to accept the role, revealing his ambivalence on taking on the part. Son of a cantor, Shicoff often questions his own level of loyalty to religion, and as Eléazar, he's forced to confront his faith. During the making of a music video (directed by Sidney Lumet), director Paula Heil Fisher captures the painful confusion consuming Shicoff's entire being as he sings the opera's famous "Rachel, quand du Seigneur" aria, where Eléazar pleads with his daughter to save her life by renouncing her Jewish faith.

Although clearly a film to be best appreciated by opera lovers, Finding Eléazar demonstrates to those with no prior background the often unacknowledged, grandiose efforts that go into mounting an opera. Beyond that, the piece outlines the fascinating transformations that actors, and in this case opera singers, must undergo to re-create a semblance of reality. In Fisher's film, the audience becomes a part of Shicoff's absorbing transformation. Parisa Vaziri
September 16, 2005