Dmitri Shostakovitch, op. 79. From Jewish Folk Poetry, in Yiddish
Dmitri Shostakovich, Op. 79.
From Jewish Folk Poetry, in Yiddish
From Jewish Folk Poetry, Op. 79
Music: Dmitri Shostakovich (1948)
The original folk lyrics in Yiddish was published in 1940 by Yekhezkl Dobrushin and Avrom Yuditsky. Shostakovich used the Russian version, which appeared in 1947. In turn, the lyrics for this performance was produced by Joachim Braun and published in 1989. He only slightly modified the original Yiddish texts in order to adapt them to Shostakovich’s melodies.
Soprano vocals: Eva Ben-Zvi
Alto vocals: Elena Goubina
Tenor vocals: Nikolay Kurpe
Director: Andrey Tchistiakov
Orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre
See below a sample of the songs’ texts (right to left): Dobrushin’s original, the Russian version and Braun’s adaptation.
Video engineer: Yoel Matveyev
Illustrated by art works of Isaak Asknaziy, Marc Chagall, Issachar Ber Ryback and Anatoli Kaplan
Produced by the Heritage Projects Foundation in 2023
On March 8, 2023, the famous Israeli actress, radio host, singer and journalist Leah Shlanger passed away at the age of 91. Her Yiddish radio broadcasts were heard for many decades on the New York radio WEVD and the Israeli station Kol Yisrael. During the last years of her life, she published essays in the American Internet magazine Yiddish Branzhe.
On February 17, the Habima Theater in Tel Aviv hosted a event celebrating one of the most famous veterans of the Israeli theatrical stage, actor and director Shmuel Atzmon (born in 1929). Habima is the famous historical symbol of modern Hebrew theater. The event was named after Atzmon’s 2022 book: Kholem be-Yiddish (Hebrew: “Dreaming in Yiddish”).
Although this theater is strongly associated with Hebrew, the celebration was held in both Hebrew and Yiddish. It included performances by the actors of the Habima Theater, where Shmuel Atzmon performed for many years, and of the Yiddish theater Yiddishpil, which he founded in Tel Aviv in 1987, thereby realizing his own dream of preserving and developing the tradition of Yiddish theatrical art.
On January 8, a new performance was premiered by the Tel Aviv theater Yiddishpil, entitled Zikhroynes fun Motl Peyse dem khazns (The Memories of Mottl, Peysi the Cantor’s Son), based on Sholem Aleichem’s classic novel. The new musical drama was written by the Israeli playwright Rami Rosen (1944-2019) and directed by Yonatan Esterkin, starring two actors, Yaacov (Yankele) Bodo and Yonatan Rosen. The performance is entirely in Yiddish, subtitled in Hebrew and Russian. It will run until February 19.