Israel was in the middle of a fierce and violent war with the militias of the Lebanese Hezbollah, when Betty Olivero started working on an assignment project for the New-York based podium 92 Y in July 2006. Deeply touched and marked by the shocking television images of victims, corpses and mourning people on both side of the border, she chose elegies by mothers, widows and sisters who had lost their loved ones as a point of reference for her composition.

The title of the composition Neharo’t Neharo’t, means ‘Rivers Rivers’ in Hebrew, and refers to the rivers and floods of tears which are too often shed by mourning women in disastrous situations. On the other hand, the title contains also an element of hope: the root of the Hebrew word ‘nahar’ (river) resembles the word ‘nehara’, meaning ‘ray of light’.

Betty Olivero taped women in mourning, as well as elegies and love songs performed by dedicated professional Israeli singers (Lea Avraham and Ilana Elia), all living in Mediterranean countries. The material was then edited and adapted to a sequence of vocal and instrumental tape soundings, which are heard in the piece at set times, as an addition to the live playing of the soloist and the string orchestra. The role play between the viola’s solo part and the strings (assisted by an accordionist and a percussionist) represents the relationship between the individual and the group to which he belongs to.