sign in sign up
<<
Home , Abraham Goldfaden, Boris Thomashefsky, Fyvush Finkel, John Walker (organist)

1 ACT I 2 Overture to Khantshe in amerike (1912)

3 Traditional “A mantl fun alt-tsaytikn shtof” (A Coat from Old-time Stu!)

Ms. Blazer

4 Percy Gaunt The (1892)

5 “Mirele’s Romance” from Koldunye (The Sorceress) (1879)

Ms. Widmann-Levy

6 Abraham Goldfaden Overture to Koldunye (1878)

7 Abraham Goldfaden “Babkelekh” from Koldunye (1878)

Mr. Brancoveanu

8 Giacomo Minkowsky “Vi gefloygn kum ikh vider” (As if on Wings I Come) from Aleksander, der kroyn prints fun yerusholaim (Alexander, Crown Prince of ) (1892)

Ms. Widmann-Levy Mr. Brancoveanu

9 Louis Friedsell “Kaddish” from Der Yeshive bokher (The Yeshiva Student) (1899)

Mr. Hensley

10 Arnold Perlmutter Medley from Dos pintele yid and Herman Wohl (A Little Spark of Jewishness) (1909) Words by Louis Gilrod “Pintele yid” and “Shtoyst zikh on” (Give a Guess) “Bar Mitzvah March”

Ms. Blazer, Mr. Hensley Ms. Widmann-Levy , Mr. Brancoveanu

I N T E R M I S S I O N

ACT II 11 Arnold Perlmutter Reprise from Dos pintele yid and Herman Wohl

12 Louis Friedsell and Others Greenhorn Medley (1905-08) Words by

Ms. Blazer

13 Nora Bayes “Who Do You Suppose Married My Sister? and Jack Norworth Thomashefsky” (1910)

Mr. Tilson Thomas

Joseph Rumshinsky Uptown, Downtown (1916)

14 Joseph Rumshinsky “Khantshe” from Khantshe in amerike (1912) Words by Isidore Lillian Ms. Blazer

15 Arnold Perlmutter “Lebn zol Columbus” (Long Live Columbus) and Herman Wohl from Der griner milyoner Words by Boris (The Green Millionaire) (1916) Thomashefsky Mr. Hensley Mr. Brancoveanu

Unknown Incidental Music from Minke di dinstmoyd (Minke the Maid) (1917)

Joseph Rumshinsky Title Song from Vi mener libn Words by Moishe Richter (The Way Men Love) (1919)

Mr. Brancoveanu

Joseph Rumshinsky Medley Words by Boris Title Song from Uptown, Downtown (1917) Thomashefsky Joseph Rumshinsky “Vatsch yor step” from Berele Tramp (1923) Words by Sam Lowenworth Ms. Blazer, Mr. Hensley Ms. Widmann-Levy, Mr. Brancoveanu

ABOUT THE THOMASHEFSKYS When The Thomashefskys premiered at Carnegie Hall in April 2005, several members of the audience commented that the music didn’t “sound Jewish.” This response may be due, In his memoir, Sounds from My Life, composer Joseph Rumshinsky (1879-1956) wrote: in part, to sensibilities nurtured by —Broadway’s projection of Sholom Aleichem’s village of Anatevka—and to contemporary Klezmer arrangements. It may The situation of the composer in the theater in general is a sad also be due to unfamiliarity with the basic nature of Jewish music, a secular and sacred one. The world can never get to know his better musical creations, because heritage in development since early post-Biblical times. the whole score—in which the ensembles, serious duets, romances and the better songs are found—seldom, indeed hardly ever, gets to print… And the The Ashkenazic (East European) , in particular, created a rich body of melody. They saddest thing is, as soon as the operetta closes and leaves the stage, the full developed liturgical music with Hebrew and Aramaic prayer texts and, in all areas where score withers and dies…. Jews settled, their minstrels mingled with other music-makers, borrowing and adapting elements from each other. These traveling minstrels, called badkhonim (literally, ones Unfortunately, Rumshinsky was right. Many of the scores have vanished—but not all. who concoct, create, make known), were folk educators as well as entertainers and sang Yiddish songs imbued with meaning. As conditions grew harsher in Tsarist , their In The Thomashefskys, you will hear the songs also took on qualities of consolation and counsel. music of shows that played in the theater houses of the in New European Yiddish theater was o"cially born only York and other American cities to which five years before Boris Thomashefsky emigrated to the Thomashefsky troupe traveled in the America. Abraham Goldfaden (1840-1908), generally late 19th and early 20th centuries. To regarded as the “Father of Yiddish Theater,” wrote say these are rescued, lost treasures is and presented the first productions in Jassy, not an exaggeration. For ten years, The , in 1876. Having himself been a badkhen for Thomashefsky Project has been searching many years, he now set out to create a type of Jewish out, reconstructing and preserving these opera or operetta, for which he interwove music disintegrating scores. Extant fragments from synagogue chants, religious hymns, holiday of musical manuscripts, discovered at songs, Hasidic tunes, Yiddish folk songs, Slavic various archives, have been pieced together melodies and European grand opera arias. That and transcribed into a digitized music such an eclectic recipe would almost immediately be program on their way to becoming as true a labeled as “Jewish music” is not unusual. The history reflection of the original works as possible. of Jewish music, as the history of And, as the manuscripts contained little itself, embodies the intermingling of traditional or no annotation, it remained for Michael elements with new stylistic influences culled from Tilson Thomas to bring them to life—to the worlds in which Jews found themselves. We are talking about a nomadic people, edit and arrange the material according after all. to his memory of how his grandmother Bessie Thomashefsky, father Ted Thomas Boris Thomashefsky writes in his Autobiography that, as a boy of five in Kaminska, and uncle Harry Thomashefsky performed the numbers in the living room of his North while learning liturgical numbers from his grandfather, the Talner Khasn (Chief Cantor), Hollywood family home in the 1950s. he was also singing Goldfaden songs. In America, a number of Goldfaden’s operettas became mainstays of Boris Thomashefsky’s early repertory, including Koldunye (The This quest for the exact flavor of the music, as it reverberated through the theater houses of Sorceress, often referred to as a Yiddish Cinderella story), the musical drama chosen by the Lower East Side a century ago, has remained a priority for . The the enterprising 15-year-old for the first presentation of Yiddish theater in America (New first time I heard him speak about his grandparents, he pondered on what it might have felt York City, 1881). It also includes Shulamis, produced in ’s Music Hall in 1888 and like to be alive at that time and in that place. He quoted from Aaron Copland: “You compose featuring 15-year-old Bessie Kaufman, who had just run away from home to join Boris because you want to somehow summarize in some permanent form your most basic feelings Thomashefsky and become a starke. Both Boris and Bessie Thomashefsky had great about being alive, to set down… some sort of permanent statement about the way it feels to live a!ection for Goldfaden and helped him in his waning years in . In 1907, to now, today. So that when it’s all gone, people will be able to go to the artwork of the time and support the ailing Goldfaden, Boris Thomashefsky agreed to present his last play, Ben Ami, get some sense of what it felt like to be alive in this year.” We hope that The Thomashefskys will at People’s Theater. Rehearsals were still in progress when the Father of Yiddish Theater enable audience members to feel connected to the world of Boris and Bessie Thomashefsky, died. Bessie was at his bedside. the world of the fledgling American immigrant, where, as Tilson Thomas has expressed it, “new unimagined questions were waiting around every glittering corner.” While Goldfaden’s operettas dominated the Thomashefskys’ early repertory, the composer The first is their dedication to socio-political causes. For them, the theater was a vehicle Joseph Rumshinsky wrote the scores for the majority of Boris and Bessie’s later hits. for social transformation. Between 1912, when Bessie Thomashefsky first appeared in Rumshinsky was forty years younger than Goldfaden, born in Vilna the same year that Khantshe in amerike, to 1922, the end of her stint as owner of Bessie Thomashefsky’s Boris Thomashefsky premiered Koldunye in . He thus came of age in the People’s Theater, she produced and starred in more than a dozen plays dealing with 1890s, when there was an already established Yiddish theater and Jewish popular music women’s rights and struggles, such as su!ragette causes and unwed motherhood. As the style. Add the influence of pre-Revolutionary salon and cabaret music in Russia, and one first Yiddish actress to publish her memoirs and own and operate her own theater, she understands the principal elements which informed Rumshinsky’s compositions and taught by example. Boris Thomashefsky also never shied away from controversial issues contributed to the sounds of the early Broadway musicals, as well. Mark Slobin, author and kept a close eye on current events in Europe. As evidenced by his chronicles of a of Tenement Songs, writes: “Coming to America in 1906, Rumshinsky became the most 1913 trip back to Eastern Europe, his childhood memories of the pogroms were always prolific and influential of the operetta composers. He lived through the transition from the with him. Until his death, he continued to write plays about victims of anti-Semitism, older European-based plots and musical styles to the advent of the lighter Americanized such as Alfred Dreyfus and Mendel Baylis. A manuscript in the Michael Tilson Thomas shows that set popular taste in the 1920s.” Collection, written in Boris’ hand, records his eyewitness account of the 1925 trial of Stanislaw Steiger, a Jew falsely accused of attempting to murder the Polish president. In The program assembled by Michael Tilson Thomas for The Thomashefskys enables us 1933, while most were oblivious to the impending danger of the Third Reich, to travel the distance from Goldfaden to Rumshinsky, to stand on the threshold where Boris wrote two plays about Hitler. sounds of Jewish music entered mainstream American life and gradually evolved into something new. Second, Boris and Bessie Thomashefsky’s comic plays never lapsed into slapstick or bu!oonery. They were quick to expose the foibles of their people, but they did so with The themes of the Thomashefskys’ productions evolved accordingly over the years— a!ection, wit and dignity. from Biblical tales and nostalgic stories of the old country to the personal and social conflicts of acculturation in America. However, no one season can be called typical, and Third, their daring programming helped to shape the course of American drama. By attempts by historians to label their repertory as shund (a somewhat derogatory Yiddish importing the works of Ibsen, Hauptmann, Ansky, Chekhov, Wilde and other avant-garde term denoting “popular” as opposed to “serious” work) are easily refuted. Bessie and playwrights, a bridge between the new European theater art forms and the American Boris Thomashefsky are as di"cult to label as their grandson, Michael Tilson Thomas; theater was built for a brief but momentous period. eclecticism and the quest for new challenges are ever present. Consider the o!erings of the Thomashefskys’ first season at The Peoples Theater, 1902-03: In addition to two And finally, whether due to personal magnetism, insight, ability to inspire or entrepreneurial original dramas by Yiddish playwright dealing with religious subject matter, acumen, they attracted countless authors, composers, actors, musicians, producers and old world myths and the immigrant experience, Yiddish versions of the following were designers. Together, this creative circle of talent produced plays and operettas that were presented: Goethe’s Faust, Hugo’s Hunchback of Notre Dame and Shakespeare’s Romeo pioneering products in every sense, reflecting new approaches to scriptwriting, musical and Juliet (with Boris Thomashefsky playing Mephistopheles, the hunchback and Romeo, composition, choreography, acting, directing and scenic design. And although this phase respectively). of Yiddish theater was short-lived, its influence continued as its participants went on to Broadway, Hollywood and elsewhere, helping to shape the development of American popular culture.

The story of Boris and Bessie Thomashefsky, Yiddish theater and the immigrant experience is vast and complicated. No doubt hundreds of tales and melodies still lie dormant among the materials accumulated by The Thomashefsky Project, waiting to be brought to life in the years ahead. Meanwhile, The Thomashefskys is, in the words of its host, o!ered to you as “an a!ectionate introduction.”

—Linda Steinberg

Copyright © 2009 The Thomashefsky Project

Hundreds of manuscripts of dramas and comedies belonging in the Thomashefsky Images courtesy of The Thomashefsky Project/Michael Tilson Thomas Collection; repertory have been found by The Thomashefsky Project, and a number have been The Archives of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York; American Jewish translated. In comparing these productions and Boris and Bessie’s accomplishments in Historical Society, New York, NY and Boston, MA; New York Public Library; Zylbercweig the context of the broader Yiddish theater scene, some conclusions about their unique Collection, Israel Goor Theatre Archives, Hebrew University, Jerusalem. contributions can be made. The Thomashefsky Project acknowledges the significant contribution of the following organizations whose archival materials were used in the research and production of The Thomashefskys:

American Jewish Historical Society, New York, NY and Boston, MA The Archives of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York & Ohio Railroad Museum Beit Hatfutsot: The Museum of the Jewish People, Tel Aviv Brown University: John Hay Library Congregation Emanu-El of the City of New York Corbis Images The Forward Archives Getty Images Harvard College Library Hebrew University: Israel Goor Theatre Archives, Jerusalem The Hollywood Museum Jabotinsky Institute in Israel The Jewish Museum of Maryland numbers arranged after the originals by Michael John E. Allen, Inc. Tilson Thomas with orchestrations by Michael Musical Library Of Congress: Music and Film Division; Tilson Thomas, Bruce Coughlin and Peter Laurence Gordon. African and Middle-Eastern Division Maryland Historical Society English lyrics by Ted Thomas and Michael Tilson Thomas. The Historic Mayfair Archives Museum of the City Of New York Who Do You Suppose Married My Sister? Thomashefsky National Center for Jewish Film at Brandeis University Composed by Nora Bayes, Jack Norworth National Yiddish Book Center Courtesy Jerry Vogel Music Company, Inc. New York Historical Society: Department of Prints, Photographs and Architectural Collections Readings excerpted from: Kaddish for a Giant by Ted Thomas; Book of My Life New York Public Library: Dorot Jewish Division by Boris Thomashefsky; The Story of My Life: The Sorrow and Joys of a Yiddish Billy Rose Theatre Collection, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Star Actress by Bessie Thomashefsky; Bessie’s Beauty Column in The Warheit Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations newspaper; Di yidishe bine, the Thomashefskys’ magazine of The Jewish Stage The Pasadena Playhouse and Thomashefski's Teater Shriftn, Boris Thomashefsky’s Writings on Theatre. Saul Silber Memorial Library at the Hebrew Theological College, Skokie, IL State Ethnographic Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia Translations from the Yiddish by Chana Mlotek, Kalman Weiser, Ronald Streamline Films Robboy, Marc Miller, Dr. Eli Katz and Dr. Chava Lapin. THE VIDEO RECORDING OF THE ADDITIONAL SUPPORT FOR THE THOMASHEFSKYS IS MADE THOMASHEFSKY PROJECT FROM: POSSIBLE IN PART BY: Dr. A. Jess Shenson Fund of the Created By Video FOR THE STAGE FOR THE Arison Arts Foundation San Francisco Foundation Michael Tilson Thomas William Steinberg PRODUCTION THOMASHEFSKY Marcia and John Goldman Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund With Patricia Birch Bob Benedetti PROJECT Michael Tilson Thomas Lighting Designer Sandy and Stephen Muss Alexander M and June L Maisin Starring Camera & Production Executive Director Carole and Je!rey Hayes and Lydia and Foundation of the Jewish Community Judy Blazer Miguel Armstrong Coordinator and Media Designer Douglas Shorenstein Rob Balton Kirk Bookman Linda Steinberg Richard Koenigsberg: Endowment Fund Charlie Huntley Spielman, Koenigsberg, Parker, LLP Joshua Robison And Featuring John Kosmaczewski Associate Production Ronit Widmann-Levy Manager FOR THE Bernard Osher Jewish Philanthropies Ira and Leonore Gershwin Trust Eugene Brancoveanu Jay Millard Naomi Zapata THOMASHEFSKY Foundation The Wornick Family Foundation Alain Onesto FILM PROJECT With David Smith Projection Koret Foundation Anne M. Steinberg New World Larry Solomon Supervisor Executive Lisa and John Pritzker Family Fund Ellen Magnin Newman Fund Symphony Ron Washburn Thomas Edler Coordinator MTT The Aaron Copland Fund for Music Mark Whitman Linda Indian Directed for Music and Script Daniel, Jan, Marley and Dylan Lewis the Stage by Robotic Camera Supervisor Rights Clearances Linda Ludwig and Neuberger Berman Patricia Birch Technicians Deanna Hull Abigail Kende Ron Travisano Written and Rick Compeau Costume Designer Project Attorneys NEW WORLD SYMPHONY, Hosted by Dona Granata James M. Michael Tilson Thomas Ted Erne Kendrick, Esq. AMERICA’S ORCHESTRAL ACADEMY Brian Sheid Hair & Make-up C. Katherine Director Anne Ford-Coates President & Chief Director of Video NEW WORLD Gary Halvorson Videotape Baron, Esq. Alan Buchner Wardrobe Executive O!cer Production SYMPHONY Cello Producers Rachel Guilfoyle Production Howard Herring Clyde Scott FELLOWS Je! Hood Joshua Robison Production Accountants Joseph Lee Coordinator Dialect Assistance Richard Koenigsberg Executive Vice Associate Director of Violin David Meyer Michael Bronson Rene Pereda Fyvush Finkel Jecca Barry President Video Production Karin Andreasen Michael Kantor Victoria Rogers Denis Warburton Jennifer Chang Sara Sitzer Script Preparation Casting Consultant Taped at Karla Donehew- Bass Coordinating Dorothy Yang Mark Simon New World Center Senior Vice Director of Audio Producer Perez Evan Halloin Miami Beach, Florida President, Artistic Services Alexandra Early Owen Levine Elaine E. Warner Stage Manager Original Production April 2011 Planning Roberto Toledo Arthur Lewis Visuals Brian Fox Audio Director and Programs Director of Lighting Claude Halter Flute Tom Lazarus Je! Sugg FOR GREAT Douglas Merilatt Matthew Roitstein Head Utility PERFORMANCES Stefan DeWilde Will Haapaniemi Jim Washburn Video Segment Vice President and Jeannette Jang Clarinet Lighting Design and Production Producer Creative Director Alan Adelman Vari-light Chief Financial Siggi Bachmann Mircea Lazar Timothy Dodge Richard Sloss John Walker O!cer Elizabeth Phelps Editor Programmer Trumpet Patrick J. Dierson Media Consultation Series Producer David J. Phillips Librarian Adrian Pintea Kevin Businsky Gary Bradley Kim Rooker Bill O’Donnell Martha Levine Anastasia Storer Dolly Grip Vice President for Violeta Vancica Carrie Schafer Associate Director Communications Artist Services Peter M. Margolis Michael Giorgio Sound Design Executive Producer Daisuke Yamamoto Trombone Consultation David Horn Craig Hall Manager Utility Margaret Bushko Douglas Rosenthal Senior Technician Hal Nishon Soogian Senior Director for Viola Ron Washburn Keith W. Conod A production of Lotem Beider Percussion Pianist and the Thomashefsky Program Operations Body Microphones Adam Zeichner Joshua Belvedere Sergio Carreno Technical Director Robert Rick Assistant Conductor Film Project LLC Elizabeth Breslin Robert Knopper Keith Winiko! Peter Grunberg and THIRTEEN for Director of Orchestra Katerina Istomin WNET Audio Post- Production Props Administration Adam Neeley Production Assistants Steve Lambert ©2012 The Edward Parsons Yumi Sagiuchi Ken Hahn Yorber Garcia Thomashefsky Emmanuel Pimental Lighting Associate Film Project Great Performances is produced for PBS by THIRTEEN for WNET, and is funded by Video Post- Alberto Rodriguez Steve O’Shea All Rights Reserved the National Endowment for the Arts, Vivian Milstein, the Starr Foundation, the Philip Production Rick Broat Score Reader Representation and Janice Levin Foundation and PBS. Additional funding for the Great Performances Teddy Abrams Columbia Artists presentation of The Thomashefskys is also provided by the LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Management LLC Tim Fox Trust and the Filomen M. D’Agostino Foundation.

Written and hosted by Michael Tilson Thomas Created by Michael Tilson Thomas with Patricia Birch Directed for the stage: Patricia Birch Directed for Television: Gary Halvorson Producers: Joshua Robison, Michael Bronson, Michael Kantor Coordinating Producer: Elaine E. Warner Audio Producer: Tom Lazarus Editor: Gary Bradley Production Supervisor and Lighting Designer: Kirk Bookman Executive Director of The Thomashefsky Project: Linda Steinberg Executive Producer for Great Performances: David Horn

New World Symphony, America’s Orchestral Academy A production of The Thomashefsky Film Project LLC and Thirteen for WNET Copyright © 2012 by The Thomashefsky Film Project

www.thomashefsky.org