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Jewish Opera: Literature, Folklore, and Historical Themes of Jewish Experience on the Opera Stage
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5 sessions, Wednesdays:
February 27; March 6, 13, 20; April 3 Tuition: $225 Registration is closed. Sign up for YIVO's email list to receive announcements of upcoming classes. |
Instructor: Dr. Neil W. Levin
It may come as a surprise even to the most ardent opera enthusiasts that the aggregate opera repertoire of the past two centuries includes many dozens of Jewishly-based works by a variety of European, Israeli, and American opera composers. In fact, opera has been—and continues to be—enriched by Jewish literary sources ranging from Isaac Bashevis Singer and Bernard Malamud to Hassidic folktales; from enduring legends such as the Dybbuk and the Golem to contemporary Jewish plots and concerns; from biblical stories and personalities to Talmudic accounts and medieval vignettes; and from ancient to modern historical episodes, both catastrophic and triumphant; comic and tragic, serious and entertaining.
Operas of Jewish experience embrace many languages: Hebrew, Yiddish, English, French, Italian, and others. Composers range from celebrated figures in the operatic pantheon such as Jacques Fromenthal Helevy (La Juive), Darius Milhaud (King David and others), and Hugo Weisgall (Father), to relatively less familiar names such as David Schiff (Gimpel the Fool), Bruce Adolphe (Mikhoels the Wise and Shabtai Tzvi), Elie Siegmeister (Angel Levine and Lady of the Lake), Joseph Tal (Massada), Marc Lavry (Dan Ha'Shomer), David Amram (The Final Ingredient), and many, many others.
Through in-depth examinations and discussions of many such operas, study of libretti and their Jewish sources, and little-known and often rare recordings, this course will explore this neglected creative phenomenon and consider how the medium of opera can provide artistic expression of Jewish culture.
Note: The first session of this class will be held on February 27 (previously February 6).
Dr. Neil W. Levin is a leading musicological and historical scholar and authority on the music of Jewish experience and connection in both its secular-cultural and sacred-liturgical realms. He is the Artistic Director and Editor in Chief of the Milken Archive of Jewish Music and emeritus professor of Jewish music at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Dr. Levin holds B.A. and M.A. degrees from Columbia University and a PHD in Jewish music from the Jewish Theological Seminary. For many years, Dr. Levin was Editor of the scholarly journal, Musica Judaica, and in addition to two books, he has published more than 300 articles, essays, and monographs on numerous aspects of Jewishly-related music and its various historical, literary, and cultural contexts. He is YIVO’s Anne E. Leibowitz Visiting Professor-in-Residence in Music.
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