Home > Religious life > Rabbis and personalities in the community life

The father, Ebenhardt Moór, was a merchant. Rafael Moór was hired as a hazan (cantor) by the Jewish Community of the Citadel, Timisoara. He made his opera debut as Manrico in Verdi's Troubadour in May 1867 on the city's theater stage. A few days later he appeared on the stage of the theater in Timişoara in the role of Edgar in Lucia de Lammermoor by Gaetano Donizetti. The audience and the press acclaimed and praised him for his full and velvety voice, in which intonations from the synagogue liturgical music were perceived. After these appearances on stage, he was fired by the community leadership for unknown reasons. Rafael Moór may also have been dissatisfied with the conditions in the synagogue inaugurated two years ago, accompanied by a small organ transported from the old temple.

Rafael Moór continued his singing career in Zagreb, Györ and Prague, but from time to time he also participated in concerts as a soloist. In Lemberg he sang in a performance of Lohengrin. In 1885-1888 he was hazan in New York. He spent the last years of his life in Vienna. Here he published a composition for a men's and mixed choir with organ accompaniment and a synagogue liturgical piece.

He had 8 children. His son, Emánuel Moór (1863, Kecskemét, Hungary - 1931, Mont-Pélerin) was a famous pianist, composer and piano builder. Henrik Moor (1876, Prague-1940, Fürstenfeldbruck) was a painter who experimented with abstract rhythmic structures and invented a genre of futuristic painting.

Sources

• Dr. Franz Metz, Von der Synagoge auf die Temeswarer Opernbühne. Das Wirken von Rafael Moor (1839-1924) in Temeswar. „Allgemeine Deutsche Zeitung”, Bukarest, Samstag, 25. April 2020
• Dr. Ákos Windhager, Rhetorische Figuren in den Sinfonien von Emanuel Moórpublished in academia.eu
• Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon online
  https://www.musiklexikon.ac.at/ml/musik_M/Moor_Emanuel.xml