"Tradition!"

[eumelia]

I just got back from the Cameri production of Fiddler on the Roof - Hebrew, obviously.

Friends, readers and lurkers... it was fucking. Amazing. Awesome. מהמם. אדיר. Unbelievable.

It was mind blowing. Couldn't have been better if they'd tried.

I'm just... in awe at how well done it was, my hands are still hurting from the amount of clapping I put them through.

Not only was the acting amazing, the choreography was fresh and updated, the singing was amazing.

I was in row eleven on the floor, so I had the perfect view (minus a giant head that happened to belong to the person sitting in front of me... grrr) and didn't miss a thing.

I'm so happy my sister had an extra ticket for me (and at the last minute for my mother): Leigh, thank you very, very much!

Here's a taste of what I saw this evening - This is a video of the Cameri performance from June 8th 2008:

The quintessential FOTR song!

Comments

[schemingreader.livejournal.com]

It's really fun to hear that in Hebrew! I understood all of it but it was like, weird that it was all Israeli pronunciation when they are acting out the quintessential Askenazi story.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Is it weirder than English? I think it's about the same when it come to the "Ashkenazi-ness" of it, everything was just so well done.
And there was a whole tribute to Shalom Aleichem in to lobby, which was quite lovely as well.

It was just so amazing! YouTube doesn't do it any justice what-so-ever!

[schemingreader.livejournal.com]

Ha ha! I thought of that question about whether it's weirder in English after I hit post. Of course it's not! At least they are sort of the same words.

[ephraim-oakes.livejournal.com]

But you know what's weirder? Hearing it in Yiddish.

Seriously, the musical departs so much from Rabinovich's _Tevye der Milkhiker_ in language and sentiment (not to mention that the music bears a pretty caricaturized relationship to actually Ashkenazi music) that FOTR is really a quintessentially American play.

strangely enough, the first thing that struck me when listening to that youtube clip was how much Israeli Hebrew sounds like German.

That's real cute that there was a tribute to Sholem Aleichem in the lobby.

[nurint.livejournal.com]

So, will you be writing FOTR fanfic now? :D

[avgboojie.livejournal.com]

Heh. You can't imagine how funny it was - I was listening to the soundtrack of Shoggoth on the Roof (http://www.cthulhulives.org/shoggoth/) (the Lovecraftian version of same musical) when I opened my friends' page and saw this... :-P

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Unlikely.

Thought I might acquire the Soundtrack and develop a taste for Kliezmer music :D

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Haha! That's hilarious!

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Wow, that must be amazing in Yiddish!

strangely enough, the first thing that struck me when listening to that youtube clip was how much Israeli Hebrew sounds like German.

Ha! Last year a friend and I were traveling in Ireland and an Irish friend of mine said that Hebrew sounded like German spoken by Italian people.
Funny.

[kaetien.livejournal.com]

I played Yente years back :) what fun!

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

What a great character to play!
She's so funny, I bet you were awesome!

[kaetien.livejournal.com]

My sister and I actually watched the video of it a couple weeks back. She was the sound engineer for the show, and we giggled over it - there was a complete lack of alto women in the show, and while I usually sang soprano or mezzo, the choral director ordered me to sing alto for the show. My sister put a loop effect on my microphone so that it sounded like a full alto section - but it was only me! :)

I can still remember most of the monologues. It was definitely a blast :D

[avgboojie.livejournal.com]

Go download the soundtrack from emule or whatever. I promise you you won't regret it.

[mao4269.livejournal.com]

Even just from the YouTube link it looks amazing - thanks for sharing!

That being said, I totally find it weirder to hear it in Hebrew than in English...Something tells me that the tribute to Sholem Aleichem didn't mention that he wanted Yiddish to be the Jewish national language and he basically lost out to Ben Yehuda & Co. (though actually, the way Israel is going, maybe both are losing out to English/cultural imperialism, so maybe the English really is weirder...).