Tradition with a twist: Lyric’s Fiddler on the Roof offers a poor man’s set and a wealth of rich performances. | DeannaIsaacs 👇
Kosky staged the Mozart favorite as a silent film.would be part of this season’s schedule gave rise to some apprehension. His comments about previousproductions he’d found too soft and kitschy didn’t help, though he made a valid point about not wanting to romanticize conditions in the shtetls of Eastern Europe.
Through 10/7: Thu-Fri 9/22-9/23 7 PM, Sat 9/24 7:30 PM, Wed-Thu 9/28-9/29 2 PM, Fri 9/30 7 PM, Sun 10/2 2 PM, Thu-Fri 10/6-10/7 7 PM, Lyric Opera House, 20 N. Wacker,Not to worry: Saturday night’s opening performance put those qualms to rest. Kosky has made changes, but hisis a deeply appreciative, even traditional, take on this musical theater masterpiece. With designer Rufus Didwiszus, he’s replaced the shtetl image with a solution that also speaks to the problem of how to make a musical theater piece work in a vast opera house. Their strategy: pare the sets down to a single symbol. Then pack the stage with live bodies and ramp up the energy. Anatevka—the fictional village somewhere in the 1905 Czarist Russian empire where the dairyman Tevye ekes out a living for his wife, Golde, and their five daughters —is represented by a mountainous pile of old furniture, with a hazy image of trees as background. But a multitude of people pour out of that pile of dressers and cupboards, starting with Tevye himself, emerging from a cabinet that soon spills forth an entire singing, dancing village. This magic cabinet is opened by a child, a modern kid wearing headphones, riding a scooter, perhaps on his way to or from a music lesson. In Kosky’s production, this boy is the fiddler—a pointed and literal connection to our time. It’s the riskiest change he makes in a story that, with its themes of sweeping social and generational change, persecution, and the plight of refugees, already has clear contemporary relevance. Like the magic cabinet, it could be Kosky’s own kitsch. As brought to life at Lyric, however, by remarkable local fifth-grader and violinist Drake Wunderlich, it works. A few songs in the Jerry Bock/Sheldon Harnick score are choreographed within an inch of their lives. “Matchmaker” with its terrific lyrics comes to mind. But that’s a quibble. Overall this jam-packedis irresistibly energized, with standout dance sequences , generous use of Lyric’s wonderful chorus, and an excellent acting and singing cast headed by Steven Skybell as a richer-voiced Tevye than we’re used to, and Debbie Gravitte as his long-suffering Golde. Kimberly Grigsby conducts the Lyric Opera orchestra.
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A Dramatically Different Take on the Enduring ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ at Lyric OperaScaled to opera house grandeur, the production involves a total of 100 performers including a cast of strong actors, an ensemble of sensational dancers, a large chorus and the full Lyric Opera Orchestra.
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