Boris Carmeli

Apart from the classical bass repertoire Boris Carmeli dedicated himself gladly to the contemporary music works. Thus he sang at the Salzburg Festival of 1973 in the premiere of De temporum fine comoedia by Carl Orff (the role of Anachoreten). He appeared in 1984 at the same festival in a concert performance of Fr. Schreker's Die Gezeichneten. He sang in the European premiere of Krzysztof Penderecki's Paradise Lost under the direction of the composer at Milan's La Scala and at the Vatican for the Pope. He participated also in premieres of contemporary Italian operas by Bartoluzzi, Allegra and Chailly.

Boris Carmeli has performed with virtually all the leading conductors of our day, including Herbert von Karajan, Carlo Maria Giulini, Zubin Mehta, Gary Bertini, Leonard Bernstein, Yuri Ahronovitch, Sergiu Celibidache, Marc Albrecht, Miltiades Caridis, Aldo Ceccato, Riccardo Muti, Lorin Maazel, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Rafael Kubelík, Hermann Scherchen, John Barbirolli, Yehudi Menuhin, Antal Doráti, Ernest Ansermet, Igor Markevitch, Georges Prêtre, Jerzy Semkow, Richter, Krzysztof Penderecki, Eugen Jochum, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Mstislav Rostropovich, Riccardo Chailly, Charles Dutoit, Harley Maga, Lothar Zagrosek, David Zinman, Zdeněk Mácal, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, and Henri Pantillion. He continued his concert appearances until the beginning of the 1990's.

Boris Carmeli performed frequently in Israel: Italiana in Algier and L.v. Beethoven's 9th Symphony with Carlo Maria Giulini, Samson and Dalilah in Cesarea under Zubin Mehta, Barber of Seville and Rake's Progress with Gary Bertini, 2 recitals under the Patronage of the Italian Embassy in Tel Aviv with pianist Jonathan Zak, W.A. Mozart-Arias at the Museion, Dmitri Shostakovich and Mussorsky with Krzysztof Penderecki with whom he had a special friendship and a very close working relationship, since the Italian Première in 1966 of Lukas Passion in Rome and the Première of Utremja in Germany. In Jerusalem 1997 was the Première of Krzysztof Penderecki's 7th Symphony Seven Gates of Jerusalem with a narrator-part for Boris in Hebrew on a text of the Prophet Ezechiel he liked especially; it was performed in the major cities of Europe, including New York, Caracas and Auschwitz.

Mrs. Sonja Carmeli wrote: "What comforts me in my big sorrow is that Boris performed almost until his last breath; we were supposed to leave in August 2009 for the 7 Gates of Jerusalem in Poland, and alas, I had to cancel it because of his unexpected and sudden death; it though permitted him to stay in his so much beloved music-world and I'm grateful to fate that I could stay close for 48 years to such an exceptional human being."

Boris Carmeli frequently appeared on Italian television and starred in many opera films, including Puccini's Turandot with Birgit Nilsson at La Scala, The Life of Puccini and Rossini's La Scala di Seta. His recordings appeared on DGG (Sirius by Stockhausen, De temporum fine comoedia). Telefunken-Decca (Die Verurteilung des Lukullus by Paul Dessau), RCA (La Scala di seta by Rossini), MRF (Le Prophète by Meyerbeer), Fonit Cetra (Works by J.S. Bach).