Folksbiene's LIGHT UP THE NIGHT: a Concert of Yiddish Theater Composers

To ring in the New Year, on January 1 National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene (NYTF) will present "Light Up The Night," a concert of rediscovered and restored pre- and post-WWII music from the theatrical works of the great composers of the Golden Age of Yiddish Theater. These include Ellstein, Goldfaden, Olshanetsky, Rumshinsky and Secunda. All are leading songwriters from the era of "The Golden Bride," which was presented by Folksbiene Theatre in 2015 and 2016. The cast will feature performers who were acclaimed in that production, backed by a 16-piece orchestra. The production is in Yiddish with projected supertitles. The full concert will be offered twice, at 2:00 PM and 6:00 PM, in Edmond J. Safra Hall at Museum of Jewish Heritage, 36 Battery Place.

This concert is the world premiere of a global initiative, led by Zalmen Mlotek (Artistic Director) and Motl Didner (Associate Artistic Director) and coinciding with the commitment from NYTF'S Executive Producer, Chris Massimine, to actualize a national namesake and international presence of the company. It will expand NYTF'S mission by rediscovering and restoring musical works of the global Yiddish Theater that have been lost, destroyed, or left out of the historical record. It is part of a wider endeavor to preserve and promote the continuity of Yiddish and Jewish culture by bridging diverse communities through the arts.

The idea to present concerts of Yiddish Theater masterpieces was inspired by the success of NYTF'S 2015-16 revival of "The Golden Bride" (Di Goldene Kale), a 1923 operetta with music by Joseph Rumshinsky, lyrics by Louis Gilrod and libretto by Frieda Freiman. NYTF hopes to mount a National Tour of "The Golden Bride" in 2017. Originally produced in a decade when the contemporary book musical was gaining traction, it was the most successful and last of the light-hearted operettas that dominated New York's Yiddish stages in its time. The piece opened in the 2,000-seat Second Avenue Theater in New York on February 9, 1923 and was one of 14 Yiddish productions playing in the city that evening. It ran for 18 weeks, then toured nationally and was revived continuously for 25 years. NYTF'S revival in 2015 was a NY Times Critics' Pick and received two Drama Desk Award nominations. Laura Collins Hughes (New York Times) deemed the show "still deeply satisfying" and praised the cast for their vocal richness and delicious chemistry. For more info on the operetta and its history, read the program notes by Michael Ochs, Libretto/Music Editor of the 2016 production, which are available at www.jsnyc.com/season/program_notes_golden_bride.htm.

The search to rediscover Yiddish Theater masterpieces requires considerable digging through archives and private collections wherever Jews lived prior to World War II. As I write this, Zalmen Mlotek is poring through archives at the State Jewish Theater in Bucharest, Romania, in search of undiscovered or lost gems to bring back. The campaign is focused on unearthing gems that might be resurrected, not classics that are already well known.

Mlotek has written, "Not unlike 'The Golden Bride,' there are volumes of historic works from the Yiddish canon just waiting to be restored and brought to audiences.... The classic performance pieces of the Golden Age of Yiddish Theater enthralled and resonated with audiences of the time and continue to do so with modern theatregoers. There is a unique timelessness to this particular art form that consistently spans and bridges generations."

"Light Up The Night" will be conducted by Zalmen Mlotek and performed by Glenn Seven Allen, Rachel Policar and Adam B. Shapiro, who were featured actors of "The Golden Bride," together with performers Grace Field and Daniel Greenwood and child singers Samuel Levit and Sophia Levit. Set décor is by Anna Cole. English supertitles are by Associate Artistic Director Motl Didner.

"Light Up The Night" will take place on Sunday, January 1, 2017 with performances at 2:00pm and 6:00pm, at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, 36 Battery Place. Admission is $30, $20 for members of the Museum of Jewish Heritage or NYTF. For tickets call 212-213-2120 Ext. 230 or visit www.nytf.org

TRAVEL TO MUSEUM OF JEWISH HERITAGE, 36 BATTERY PLACE
BY SUBWAY:
4/5 to Bowling Green; Walk west along Battery Place.
1 to Rector Street, walk south down Greenwich Street toward Battery Park; make a right on Battery Place and continue walking west.
R to Whitehall Street or Rector Street. From Whitehall, walk west along Battery Place. From Rector Street, walk south down Greenwich Street toward Battery Park; make a right on Battery Place and continue walking west.
BY BUS
M5, M15 to South Ferry
M20 to Battery Park City, stops in front of the Museum
M9 to West Thames
Downtown Connection Bus, a free bus service, connects Battery Park City with the South Street Seaport, making stops at many important destinations from river to river-including a stop right in front of the Museum.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS AND CREATIVE TEAM

Abraham Ellstein (1907 - 1963) was one of Yiddish Theater's few American-born composers. He is generally considered one of the "big four of Second Avenue," along with Sholom Secunda, Joseph Rumshinsky, and Alexander Olshanetsky. Still, he considered his Yiddish Theater music only a part of his classical career. His salient works include the romantic musical comedy film "Yidl Mitn Fidl" (1936) and one opera, "The Golem" (1962 New York City Opera, music director Julius Rudel).

Abraham Goldfaden (1840 Russia -1908 New York) lived and worked in Yiddish theater and journalism in Russia, Poland, New York and London. Since many of his dramatic works are set to his own music, Goldfaden is considered founder of Yiddish opera. Among his nearly 400 plays are "David at War" (1904, the first Hebrew play produced in the USA), "Shulamit" (his masterwork, 1880), and "Bar Kochba" (1882). In 1876, he founded in Romania what is generally credited as the world's first professional Yiddish-language theater troupe. He is called the father of the Yiddish Theater.

Alexander Olshanetsky (1892 Odessa -1946 New York) was among the most prominent and most musically sophisticated Second Avenue composers and conductors. He worked as composer and violinist in The Lenox Yiddish Theater in Harlem and The Liberty in Brooklyn before "graduating" to the more prestigious downtown National Theater. In 1929, after many successful operettas of his own, he rewrote some of the music for Goldfaden's "Bar Kochba" for its radio debut. From 1925 to his death, his operettas played the major Second Avenue theaters and he was the first musical director of the Concord Hotel. He is credited with introducing dreamy romance and the Russian Gypsy idiom to American Yiddish theater. His last operetta was "Ale viln khasene hobn" (Everyone Wants to Get Married).

Joseph Rumshinsky (1881 Vilnius -1956 New York), composer of "The Golden Bride," was born in Vilnius, Lithuania and toured as a student chorister to various cities throughout the Pale, where he encountered Russian and Yiddish Theater. In 1899, he became conductor of the Hazomir Choral Society in Lódz, but emigrated to London in 1902 to avoid conscription in the czarist army. He arrived in New York in 1904. He regarded Yiddish Theater here as "elevated vaudeville" and worked his entire career to establish an American Yiddish light operetta. Early works included "Der yidishe Yankee Doodle" (1905), a melodramatic version of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and a "Hamlet" reimagined as "Der yeshiva bokher" (The Talmud Student). He wrote many scores for Molly Picon. His most enduring contributions include establishing the full 24-piece pit orchestra and his insistence on fully trained singers with legitimate light operatic voices, which became the standard thereafter. His symphonic ideal was reflected in the light operas of Lehár, Kalman, Romberg and Herbert and in the book musicals of 1940s-1950s Broadway.

Sholem Secunda (1894 Ukraine -1974 New York) was born in in Aleksandria city, Russian Empire (now Ukraine), where he became a boy hazzan before emigrating to America in 1907. In New York, he trained at the Institute for Musical Art (now Juilliard) and subsequently, with Solomon Shmulevitz (1868-1943), he wrote his first full-length score, "Yoysher" (Justice, 1914). His body of work ultimately included eighty operettas, melodramas, and musical shows for the Yiddish stage as well as many independent songs. He is best known for the popular song "Bay mir bistu sheyn" (1932), which was taken from his musical comedy of that year, "M'ken lebn nor m'lost nit." While he was intellectually committed to writing serious Yiddish poetry in art songs, the lure of the theater was stronger and he composed at least seven shows between 1935 and 1937 alone. He wrote prolifically for Cantor Reuben Ticker (a.k.a. opera tenor Richard Tucker) and he continued to write into the 1960s. His final musical was "Shver tsu zayn a yid: (It's Hard to Be a Jew, 1973).

Zalmen Mlotek (Music Director /Conductor) is the Artistic Director of the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene and is an internationally recognized authority on Yiddish folk and theater music. Mlotek brought Yiddish-Klezmer music to Broadway and off-Broadway stages. His shows "Those Were the Days," "The Golden Land" and "On Second Avenue" have received Tony nominations and Drama Desk Awards and nominations. He recently conducted a tour of "The Golden Land" in Vienna, Austria, this past October. He helped Michael Tilson Thomas create and present his tribute to his grandparents, "The Thomashevskys," which toured nationally and was shown on PBS. He helped Mandy Patinkin with his recording and concert of "Mamaloshen." He has produced numerous CDs, including "Ghetto Tango" with the late Adrienne Cooper. He has accompanied Theodore Bikel, Jean Stapleton, Sheldon Harnick, Jan Peerce, Joshua Bell, Ron Rifkin, and Joel Grey. He has been musical director at Williamstown Theatre Festival, the Great Lakes Theater Festival, the Westchester Light Opera, the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, MA, the American Musical Theater Festival in Philadelphia and the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Zalmen and his wife Debra were recently honored by the NYTF for their 18 years of service at the Gala at Jazz at Lincoln Center starring Mandy Patinkin. In July, Zamir Choral Foundation honored him with their Hallel v'Zimrah award for his decades of work keeping Yiddish choral music alive and at the highest standard possible.

Motl Didner (Director) is the Associate Artistic Director of the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, for which he has staged "The Megile of Itzik Manger," "Fyvush Finkel Live!" (Drama Desk Award-nominated), "Di Tsvey Brider" (The Two Brothers), "The Pushcart Peddlers" and "Di Ksube" (The Marriage Contract). Didner has appeared on stage in" Gimpl Tam" (Gimpel the Fool) and with Theodore Bikel and Fyvush Finkel in "Di Komediantn" (The Sunshine Boys). He performs with Di Folksbiene Trupe (Traveling Troupe). He recently directed the world premiere of Robert Brustein's musical comedy, "The King of Second Avenue," at the New Repertory Theatre in Watertown, MA. He is a member of SDC.

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