boston symphony orchestra concert programs, summer, 2009, … · 2013. 10. 11. ·...
TRANSCRIPT
The Thomashefskys:
Music and Memories of a Life in the Yiddish Theater
*J*
Tanglewood
Seiji Ozawa Hall, August 19-20, 2009
TanglewoodWednesday, August 19, 8pmThursday, August 20, 8pmFlorence Gould Auditorium, Seiji Ozawa Hall
The ThomashefskysMusic and Memories of a Life in the Yiddish Theater
SEIJI OZAWA HALL
Hosted by Michael Tilson Thomas
With the Boston Symphony Orchestra
Directed by Patricia Birch
Starring Judy Blazer
Starring Neal Benari
And featuring
Ronit Widmann-Levy and Eugene Brancoveanu
Script by Michael Tilson Thomas
Produced in association with The Thomashefsky Project,
Linda Steinberg, Executive Director and Media Designer
Kirk Bookman, Production Supervisor and Lighting Designer
Naomi Zapata, Associate Production Manager
Peter Grunberg, Musical Assistant and Orchestral Pianist
Thomas Edler, Media Coordinator
Deanna Hull, Music Coordinator
Joshua Robison, Executive Producer
Bank of America is proud to sponsor the 2009 Tanglewood season.
Steinway and Sons Pianos, selected exclusively for Tanglewood.
Special thanks to Commonwealth Worldwide Chauffeured Transportation.
In consideration of the performers and those around you, please turn off all cellular phones, texting
devices, pagers, and watch alarms during the concert.
Please do not take pictures during the concert. Flashes, in particular, are distracting to the performers
and to other audience members.
Note that the use of audio or video recording during performances in the Koussevitzky Music Shedor Seiji Ozawa Hall is prohibited.
Act I
Joseph Rumshinsky Overture to Khantshe in amerike (1915)
Traditional Folk Song A mantl fun alt-tsaytikn shtof
[A coat from old-time stuff]
Judy Blazer
Percy Gaunt The Bowery (1892)
Abraham Goldfaden Mirele's Romance from Koldunye
[The Witch] (1879)
Ronit Widmann-Levy
Abraham Goldfaden Overture to Koldunye
Abraham Goldfaden Babkelekh from Koldunye
Eugene Brancoveanu
Giacomo Minkowsky Vi gefloygn kum ikh vider [As If OnWings I Come]
Lyricist unknown from Aleksander, der kroyn printsfun yerusholaim
[Alexander, Crown Price ofJerusalem] (1892)
Ronit Widmann-Levy
Eugene Brancoveanu
Louis Friedsell Kaddish from Der Yeshive bokher
[The Yeshiva Student] (1900)
Arnold Perlmutter
& Herman Wohl
Lyrics by Louis Gilrod
& Boris Thomashefsky
Medley from Dos pintele yid [A Little Spark of
Jewishness] (1909)
Pintele yid
Shtoyst zikh on [Give a Guess]
Bar Mitzvah March
Judy Blazer
Neal Benari
Ronit Widmann-Levy
Eugene Brancoveanu
Intermission
Act II
Arnold Perlmutter Reprise from Dos pintele yid
& Herman Wohl
Louis Friedsell Greenhorn Medley (1905-1908)
& Others Judy Blazer
Lyrics by Isidore Lillian
Nora Bayes Who Do You Suppose Married My Sister?
& Jack Norworth Thomashefsky (1910)
Michael Tilson Thomas
Abraham Goldfaden Title Song from Uptown, Downtown (1916)
Joseph Rumshinsky Khantshe from Khantshe in amerike (1912)
Lyrics by Isidore Lillian Judy Blazer
Arnold Perlmutter Lebn zol Columbus [Long Live Columbus]
.
& Herman Wohl from Der griner milyoner [ The Green
Millionaire] (1916)
Neal Benari
Eugene Brancoveanu
Lyrics by Boris Thomashefsky
Unknown Incidental Music from Minke di dinstmoyd
[Minke the Maid] (1917)
Joseph Rumshinsky Title Song from Vi mener libn
Lyricist unknown [The Way Men Love] (1919)
Eugene Brancoveanu
Musical numbers arranged after the originals by Michael Tilson Thomas with orchestra-
tions by Michael Tilson Thomas, Bruce Coughlin, and Peter Laurence Gordon.
English lyrics by Ted Thomas and Michael Tilson Thomas.
Video segments designed and produced by Dada. Media consultation by Concept
Organization, Inc. First production visuals byJeff Sugg.
Original sound design by Tom Clark. Additional sound design by Hal Nishon Soogian.
Readings excerpted from: Kaddishfor a Giant by Ted Thomas; Book ofMy Life by Boris
Thomashefsky; The Story ofMy Life: The Sorrow andJoys of a Yiddish Star Actress by Bessie
Thomashefsky; Bessie's Beauty Column in The Warheit newspaper; Di yidishe bine, the
Thomashefskys' magazine of TheJewish Stage; Thomashefskis Teater Shriftn, Boris Thoma-shefsky's Writings on Theatre.
Translations from the Yiddish by Chana Mlotek, Ronald Robboy, Kalman Weiser,
Marc Miller and Dr. Eli Katz.
The Thomashefsky Project acknowledges the significant contribution of the following
institutions whose archival materials were used in the research and production of The
Thomashefskys: New York Public Library, Dorot Jewish Division, New York City; New York
Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center; New York Historical Society:
Department of Prints, Photographs and Architectural Collections, New York City;
Museum of the City of New York: Prints, Drawings and Photograph Collections; YTVOInstitute for Jewish Research, New York City; Library of Congress: Music and Film
Divisions, Washington, D.C.; Library of Congress: African and Middle Eastern Division;
Harvard College Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts; American-
Jewish Historical Society, Yiddish Theater Poster Collection, New York City; BrownUniversity Library, Providence, Rhode Island; The Catskills Institute at Brown University;
National Yiddish Book Center, Amherst, Massachusetts; Hebrew University, Israel GoorTheatre Archives, Jerusalem; Beth Hatfutsoth, Museum of the Diaspora, Tel Aviv;
Jabotinsky Institute Archives, Tel Aviv; Jewish Museum of Maryland, Baltimore; Maryland
Historical Society, Baltimore; Chicago Historical Society, Chicago; the Pasadena Playhouse,
Pasadena, California; the Historic Mayfair Hotel Archives, Los Angeles and The B&ORailroad Museum, Baltimore.
Film segment courtesy of the National Center for Jewish Film at Brandeis University,
Waltham, Massachusetts. Sharon Pucker Rivo, Executive Director.
All images courtesy The Thomashefsky Project/Michael Tilson Thomas Collection of
Yiddish Theatre, unless otherwise noted.
Audio selections courtesy of the Sound Archives, YTVO Institute for Jewish Research,
New York, New York.
Cover photograph of Michael Tilson Thomas in "The Thomashefskys" by Stefan Cohen(Courtesy The Thomashefsky Project).
Mark Simon, Casting Consultant
Steve Colby, Audio Engineer
Joseph Spratt, Assistant Stage Manager
Cris Raymond, Wardrobe
Jamie Carson, Wigs and Makeup
Derek LeDoux, Productive Media, Inc.,
Teleprompter
Joe Miller, Video Projection
ECLPS, Lighting
AVFX, Projections
SAVI, Sound
Bessie Thomashefsky as Mamie in Der Yiddisher Yenki
Dudl/The Jewish Yankee Doodle, 1901-1902 People's
Theatre season
NOTES ON THE PROGRAM
In his memoir, Soundsfrom My Life, composer Joseph Rumshinsky (1879-1956) wrote:
"The situation of the composer in the Yiddish theater in general is a sad one. Theworld can never get to know his better musical creations, because the whole score
—
in which the ensembles, serious duets, romances, andthe better songs are found—seldom, indeed hardly ever,
gets to print— And the saddest thing is, as soon as the
operetta closes and leaves the stage, the full score withers
and dies"
Unfortunately, Rumshinsky was right. Many of the scores
have vanished—but not all.
In The Thomashefskys, you will hear the music of shows
that played the theater houses of the Lower East Side in
New York and other American cities to which the
Thomashefsky troupe traveled in the late nineteenth andearly twentieth centuries. To say these are rescued lost
treasures is not an exaggeration. For ten years, TheThomashefsky Project has been searching out, recon-
structing, and preserving these disintegrating scores.
Extant fragments of musical manuscripts, discovered at
various archives, have been pieced together and tran-
scribed into a digitized music program on their way to
becoming as true a reflection of the original works as
possible. And as the manuscripts contained little or noannotation, it remained for Michael Tilson Thomas to
bring them to life—to edit and arrange the material,
according to his memory of how his grandmother Bessie
Thomashefsky, uncle Harry Thomashefsky, and father Ted Thomas performed the
numbers in the living room of his North Hollywood family home in the 1950s.
This quest for the exact flavor of the music as it reverberated through the theater
houses of the Lower East Side a century ago has remained a priority for Michael
Tilson Thomas. The first time I heard him speak about his grandparents, he pon-
dered on what it may have felt like to be alive at that time and in that place. Hequoted from Aaron Copland: "You compose because you want to somehow summa-rize in some permanent form your most basic feelings about being alive, to set
down. . . some sort of permanent statement about the way it feels to live now, today.
So that when it's all gone, people will be able to go to the artwork of the time and
get some sense of what it felt like to be alive in this year." We hope that The Thoma-
shefskys will enable audience members to feel connected to the world of Boris and
Bessie Thomashefsky, the world of the fledgling American immigrant, where, as
MTT has expressed it, "new unimagined questions were waiting around every glitter-
ing corner."
When The Thomashefskys premiered at Carnegie Hall in April 2005, several membersof the audience commented that the music didn't "sound Jewish." This response
may be due, in part, to sensibilities nurtured by Fiddler on the Roof-—Broadway's pro-
jection of Sholom Aleichem's village of Anatevka—and to contemporary Klezmer
arrangements. It may also be due to unfamiliarity with the basic nature ofJewish
music, a secular and sacred heritage in development since early post-biblical times.
The Ashkenazic (East European) Jews, in particular, created a rich body of melody.
They developed liturgical music with Hebrew and Aramaic prayer texts, and, in all
areas where Jews settled, their minstrels mingled with other music-makers, borrow-
Joseph Rumshinsky pictured on the sheet music
cover of Bessie Thomashefsky's 1912 hit
Abraham Goldfaden, the "Father of Yiddish Theater"
(Collection of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research,
New York)
ing and adapting elements from each other. These traveling minstrels, called bad-
khonim (literally, ones 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 Russia, their songs also took on quali-
ties of consolation and counsel.
European Yiddish theater was officially born only five
years before Boris Thomashefsky emigrated to America.
Abraham Goldfaden (1840-1908), generally regarded astthe "Father of Yiddish Theater," wrote and presented
y the first productions in Jassy, Romania, in 1876. Having
^^ himself been a badkhen for many years, he now set out
_ _ ^ ^^^^ to create a type ofJewish opera or operetta, for which
he interwove music from synagogue chants, religious
hymns, holiday songs, Hasidic tunes, Yiddish folk songs,
Slavic melodies, and European grand opera arias. That
such an eclectic recipe would almost immediately be
labeled as 'Jewish music" is not unusual. The history
ofJewish music, as the history ofJewish culture itself,
embodies the intermingling of traditional elements
with new stylistic influences culled from the worlds in
which Jews found themselves. We are talking about a
nomadic people, after all.
Boris Thomashefsky writes in his Autobiography that, as a boy of five in Kaminska,
while learning liturgical numbers from his grandfather, the Talner Khasn, he was
also singing Goldfaden songs. In America, a number of Goldfaden's operettas
became mainstays of Boris Thomashefsky's early repertory, including Koldunye (often
referred to as a Yiddish Cinderella story) , the musical drama chosen by the enter-
prising fifteen-year-old for the first presentation of Yiddish theater in America (New
York City, 1881). It also includes Shulamis, produced in Boston's Music Hall in 1888
and featuring fifteen-year-old Bessie Kaufman, who had just run away from home to
join Boris Thomashefsky and become a starke. Both Boris and Bessie Thomashefsky
had great affection for Goldfaden and helped him in his waning years in New York.
In 1907, to support the ailing Goldfaden, Boris Thomashefsky agreed to present his
last play, Ben Ami, at People's Theater. Rehearsals were still in progress when the
Father of Yiddish Theater died. Bessie was at his bedside.
While Goldfaden's operettas dominated the Thomashefskys' early repertory, the
composer Joseph Rumshinsky wrote the scores for the majority of Boris and Bessie's
later hits. Rumshinsky was forty years younger than Goldfaden, born in Vilna the
same year that Boris Thomashefsky premiered Koldunye in New York City. He thus
came of age in the 1890s, when there was an already established Yiddish theater and
Jewish popular music style. As Mark Slobin, author of Tenement Songs, explains: "It
was also the heyday of pre-Revolutionary salon and cabaret music in Russia, and all
these streams flowed through his musical life. Coming to America in 1906, Rumshin-
sky became the most prolific and influential of the operetta composers. He lived
through the transition from the older European-based plots and musical styles to
the advent of the lighter Americanized shows that set popular taste in the 1920s."
The program assembled by Michael Tilson Thomas for The Thomashefskys enables
us to travel the distance from Goldfaden to Rumshinsky, to stand on the threshold
where sounds ofJewish music entered mainstream American life and gradually
evolved into something new.
The themes of the Thomashefskys' productions evolved accordingly over the years
—
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 attempts by historians to label their repertory as "shund" (a somewhat derogato-
ry Yiddish term denoting "popular" as opposed to "serious" work) are easily refuted.
Bessie and Boris Thomashefsky are no easier to label than their grandson, Michael
Tilson Thomas; eclecticism and the quest for new challenges are ever present.
Consider the offerings of the their first season at The People's Theater, 1902-1903:
in addition to two original dramas by Yiddish playwright Leon Kobrin dealing with
religious subject matter, old world myths, and the immigrant experience, Yiddish
versions of the following were presented: Goethe's Faust, Hugo's Hunchback ofNotre
Dame, and Shakespeare's Romeo andJuliet (with Boris Thomashefsky playing Mephi-
stopheles, the hunchback, and Romeo, respectively).
Hundreds of manuscripts of dramas and comedies belonging in the Thomashefskyrepertory have been found by The Thomashefsky Project, and a number have beentranslated. In comparing these productions and Boris and Bessie's accomplishments
in the context of the broader Yiddish theater scene, some conclusions about their
unique contributions can be made.
The first is their dedication to socio-political causes. For them, the theater was a
vehicle for social transformation. Between 1912, when Bessie Thomashefsky first
appeared in Khantshe in America, to 1922, the end of her stint as owner of Bessie
Thomashefsky's People's Theater, she produced and starred in more than a dozen
plays dealing with women's rights and struggles, such as suffragette causes andunwed motherhood. As the first Yiddish actress to publish her memoirs and own
and operate her own theater, she taught by example.
Boris Thomashefsky also never shied away from contro-
versial issues and kept a close eye on current events in
Europe. As evidenced by his chronicles of a 1913 trip
back to Eastern Europe, his childhood memories of the
pogroms were always with him. Until his death, he con-
tinued to write plays about victims of anti-Semitism,
such as Alfred Dreyfus and Mendel Baylis. A manuscript
in the Michael Tilson Thomas Collection, written in
Boris's hand, records his eyewitness account of the
1925 trial of Stanislaw Steiger, a Jew falsely accused of
attempting to murder the Polish president. In 1933,
while most Americans were oblivious to the impending
danger of the Third Reich, Boris wrote two plays about
Hitler.
Second, Boris and Bessie Thomashefsky's comic plays
never lapsed into slapstick or buffoonery. They were
quick to expose the foibles of their people, but they
did so with affection, wit, and dignity.
Third, their daring programming helped to shape the
course of American drama. By importing the works of
Ibsen, Hauptmann, Ansky, Chekhov, Wilde, and other
avant-garde playwrights, a bridge between the newEuropean theater art forms and the American theater
was built for a brief but momentous period.
And finally, whether due to personal magnetism,
insight, ability to inspire, or entrepreneurial acumen,
they attracted countless authors, composers, actors,
musicians, producers, and designers. Together, this cre-
ative circle of talent produced plays and operettas that
Poster featuring "The Eminent Jewish Artist Bessie
Thomashefsky" with four of her most famous roles
illustrated below her portrait: (left to right) Minke di
dinstmoyd/Minke the Maid, Der griner bokher/The
Greenhorn Boy, Der Yisheve bokher/The Yeshivah
Boy (aka Hamlet), and Suzi Bren/Susie the Firebrand,
0.1917 (Courtesy The Thomashefsky Project, Michael
Tilson Thomas Collection of Yiddish Theatre)
THQINSHEFSKY
«
NOW PLAYING
N? BorisTHOWSHEFSWf
SOLOMON PUTTEWIOPF
"THE GREEN „MILLIONAIRErrtttmi* SHOHER-umiw DfTWAY"
were pioneering products in every sense, reflecting new approaches
to scriptwriting, musical composition, choreography, acting, directing,
and scenic design. And although this phase of Yiddish theater was
shortlived, its influence continued as its participants went on to Broad-
way, 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, offered
to you as "an affectionate introduction."
LINDA STEINBERG
Linda Steinberg is Executive Director of The Thomashefsky Project.
Copyright ©2005 The Thomashefsky Project.
Images courtesy of The Thomashefsky Project/Michael Tilson ThomasCollection, YTVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York, and the
Zylbercweig Collection, Israel Goor Theatre Archives, Hebrew University,
Jerusalem.
Poster for Boris Thomashefsky in
one of his most famous roles:
Solomon Putterknopf, "The Green
Millionaire, " 7976. (Collection
of the American-Jewish Historical
Society, New York)
Yiddish playwright Leon Kobrin,
flanked by Boris and Bessie
Thomashefsky, reading a newplay to the Thomashefsky Com-pany, 1910 (Collection of the
Israel Goor Archives, HebrewUniversity, Jerusalem, Israel)
Artists
Michael Tilson Thomas
Michael Tilson Thomas (conductor and narrator), the grandson of Boris and Bessie
Thomashefsky, is music director of the San Francisco Symphony, artistic director of
the New World Symphony, and principal guest conductor of the London Sym-
phony Orchestra. A Los Angeles native, Mr. Tilson Thomas began his formal
music studies at the University of Southern California, where he studied piano
with John Crown and conducting and composition with Ingolf Dahl. At age
nineteen he was named music director of the Young Musicians Foundation
Debut Orchestra. He worked with Stravinsky, Boulez, Stockhausen, and Coplandon premieres of their works at Los Angeles's famed Monday Evening Concerts.
During this same period he was pianist and conductor for Gregor Piatigorsky
and Jascha Heifetz. In 1969, after winning the Koussevitzky Prize at Tanglewood,
Mr. Tilson Thomas was appointed assistant conductor of the Boston SymphonyOrchestra. That year he also made his New York debut with the BSO, gaining interna-
tional recognition when he replaced music director William Steinberg in mid-concert
at Lincoln Center. Subsequently named associate conductor and then principal guest
conductor of the orchestra, he remained with the BSO until 1974. Mr. Tilson Thomaswas music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic from 1971 to 1979, principal guest
conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 1981 to 1985, and principal conduc-
tor of the London Symphony Orchestra from 1987 to 1995. Music director of the San
Francisco Symphony since 1995, he has toured extensively with that orchestra in the
United States, Europe, and Asia. His guest conducting engagements include frequent
appearances with the major orchestras of Europe and the United States. In 1987 Mr.
Tilson Thomas created the New World Symphony, a post-graduate orchestral academy
based in Miami Beach. Over 700 graduates of the academy are now in musical leader-
ship positions internationally. In 1991 he and the New World Symphony were present-
ed in a series of benefit concerts for UNICEF featuring Audrey Hepburn as narrator
of Mr. Tilson Thomas's composition From the Diary ofAnne Frank; the work has since
been translated and performed in many languages worldwide. In August 1995 Mr.
Tilson Thomas led the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra in the world premiere of his
Showa/Shoah, written in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the bombing of
Hiroshima. He has also written song cycles for Thomas Hampson and Renee Fleming.
His extensive television work includes a series with the London Symphony Orchestra
for BBC Television and the telecasts of the New York Philharmonic Young People's
Concerts from 1971 to 1977. Starting in 2004, Mr. Tilson Thomas and the San Fran-
cisco Symphony embarked on a multi-tiered media project, "Keeping Score," which
includes television, web sites, radio programs, and programs in the schools. In April
2009 he conducted the YouTube Symphony Orchestra in Carnegie Hall; the orchestra
was the first ever assembled by worldwide on-line auditions. Viva Voce, his volume of
conversations with British critic Edward Seckerson, is published by Faber & Faber.
A Chevalier des Arts et Lettres and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences, Mr. Tilson Thomas has been named Gramophone's Artist of the Year and
Musical America's Musician of the Year. He has won seven Grammys for his recordings
and in 2008 received a Peabody Award for his radio series "The MTT Files." Michael
Tilson Thomas's Tanglewood appearances this summer are his first since 1988, when
he led music of Rimsky-Korsakov, Sibelius, and Stravinsky in a concert of his ownwith the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and then led music of Bernstein, Mahler, and
Copland as part of the gala BSO concert celebrating Leonard Bernstein's seventieth
birthday. This coming Sunday afternoon, having led the BSO in a program of Rach-
maninoff and Shostakovich with pianist Yefim Bronfman last Saturday night, he
returns to the BSO podium for the orchestra's final concert of the summer, leading
Charles Ives's Decoration Day and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.
Patricia Birch
Patricia Birch (director) has earned two Emmy Awards and five Tony nominations in a
career that crosses all media. Other honors include Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle,
Barrymore, Billboard, and MTV awards, as well as a Directors Guild nomination
and the prestigious Fred Astaire Award for her choreography and direction of
music-driven projects ranging from Sondheim to the Rolling Stones. Ms. Birch
has created the musical staging for original Broadway and off-Broadway shows
including Grease; You 're a Good Man, Charlie Brown; The Me Nobody Knows; A Little
Night Music; Candide; Over Here; Diamond Studs; The Happy End; Pacific Overtures;
They're Playing Our Song; Gilda Radner, Livefrom New York; Zoot Suit; Rosa; Parade;
LikeJazz; and LoveMusik, with Donna Murphy and Michael Cerveris, directed by
Harold Prince. Direction as well as choreography credits include Celebrating
Gershwin at BAM and the televised concert production of On the Town with the
London Symphony Orchestra, both with Michael Tilson Thomas; the Melissa Man-chester musical / Sent a Letter to My Love; the original production of Maurice Sendak
and Carole King's Really Rosie; Joe Raposo's Raggedy; The Snow Queen, a multi-media
docu-musical about the Comedian Harmonists; the Cy Coleman musical Exactly Like
You, and Portraits inJazz (music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Marilyn and Alan Bergman)at the Kennedy Center in 2002. She worked with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San
Francisco Symphony on Le Rossignol, the double bill Of Thee I Sing/Let Em Eat Cake, and,
this past June, Iolanthe. In development are Orphan Train, a dramatic musical, and WoDzai, a multi-media martial arts adventure. Opera and music projects include Salome,
The Mikado, Candide, and Street Scene for New York City Opera; The Mass and The Balcony
for the Opera Company of Boston, also presented at the Bolshoi Theatre; and AWeddingby William Bolcom, Arnold Weinstein, and Robert Altman at Chicago Lyric
Opera. Ms. Birch's film credits include choreography for all musical sequences for
Grease and direction as well on Grease 2. She also staged musical sequences for Big,
Working Girl, Sleeping with the Enemy, Stella, Awakenings, Billy Bathgate, Roseland, The Wild
Party, First Wives Club, The Human Stain, and The Stepford Wives. For television, Ms. Birch
has directed Natalie Cole: Unforgettable with Love and Celebrating Gershwin, both of which
earned her Emmy Awards in direction; Dance in America for the 20th anniversary of
PBS's "Great Performances"; and Natalie Cole's Untraditional Traditional Christmas fea-
turing Elmo. She was a choreographer for The Electric Company and spent six years stag-
ing numbers for Gilda Radner, Steve Martin, Bill Murray. John Belushi, Jim Belushi,
Dan Ackroyd, and many guest stars on Saturday Night Live. She also directed music
videos for Cyndi Lauper, the Rolling Stones, the Oak Ridge Boys, Carly Simon, andNBC's Olympics telecast.
Judy Blazer
Judy Blazer (Bessie Thomashefsky) began her career as a young singer in opera, orato-
rio, and recital in New York City and throughout Italy. She moved into Broadway the-
ater with leading roles in Me and My Girl (Sally), A Change in the Heir (Prince
Conrad), Titanic (Lady Caroline), and Neil Simon's 45 Seconds from Broadway
(Cindy). Most recently on Broadway she was seen in LoveMusik, directed by
Harold Prince. Off-Broadway, she was featured in Candide (the Old Lady) with
New York City Opera, The House ofBernalda Alba (LTC), Sweeney Todd (the Beggar
Woman) with New York City Opera, The Torch Bearers (Florence) with TheDrama Dept., Lincoln Center's Hello Again by Michael John LaChiusa (DramaDesk nomination), The Roundabout's Hurrah at Last by Richard Greenberg,
and the New York City Center Encores production of Connecticut Yankee (Alice/
Sandy) . Ms. Blazer has sung at the Metropolitan Opera as a soloist in Twyla
Tharp's Everlast v/ith American Ballet Theatre, and has performed in concert at Lin-
coln Center singing music of Ricky Ian Gordon and at Joe's Pub at the Public Theater
singing songs of Michael John LaChiusa. She has recorded music of both these artists
and has been a guest on the recordings of vocalist Mandy Patinkin and violinist Nadja
Salerno-Sonnenberg, as well as a featured artist on over twenty other recordings.
Ms. Blazer has been seen on television in two episodes of Law and Order (as Defense
Attorney Simon and as Clara Porazzi, convicted murderer) , As the World Turns (Ariel)
,
Guiding Light (Marissa), and as a featured artist on two PBS specials, Bernstein's NewYork and In Performance at the White House. Regionally, she has just completed a run as
Luz in Giant at the Signature Theatre. She has played the title roles in Funny Girl at
Sundance Theater, The Miracle Worker at George Street Playhouse, My Fair Lady at the
Paper Mill Playhouse and the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle, Peter Pan at Artpark,
and The Night Governess at McCarter Theatre. She has also been seen as Maria in
Shakespeare's Twelfth Night at the Long Wharf Theatre and as Lily Garland in Onthe 20th Century with the American Musical Theatre of San Jose. A graduate of the
Manhattan School of Music, Ms. Blazer has been on the voice faculty of New York
University and a guest teacher in colleges throughout the United States and Russia.
She is also artistic director of the Artist's Crossing Theatre Company and School.
Neal Benari
Neal Benari (Boris Thomashefsky) has been a professional actor and singer for over
thirty years and has numerous stage, film, and television credits. He has appeared onBroadway eight times, most recently in David Leveaux's revival of Fiddler on the
Roof. Other Broadway appearances include Disney's Aida, Blake Edwards's
Victor/Victoria starring Julie Andrews, Sir Peter Hall's The Merchant of Venice,
Chess, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Roza, and The First. He can
also be heard on the Broadway cast recordings ofJoseph and the Amazing
Technicolor Dreamcoat and Chess. Mr. Benari has worked extensively in regional
theaters and on national tours. He recently played the title character in KenLudwig's farce Lend Me A Tenor, Zuniga in Franco Dragone's "pop" adaptation
of Carmen at the La Jolla Playhouse, and Don Quixote/Cervantes in the Maltz
Jupiter Theater production of Man ofLa Mancha (nominated for a Carbonell
award) . Other major roles have included Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, Tateh in Ragtime,
Professor Higgins in My Fair Lady (Carbonell and CEA nominations), Sweeney in
Sweeney Todd, Voltaire/Pangloss in Candide, Macheath in The Threepenny Opera, and,
under the auspices ofJoe Papp and the NY Public Theater, Schaunard in La boheme.
On tour he has played the villainous Zoser in Disney's Aida, Captain Von Trapp oppo-
site Marie Osmond in The Sound ofMusic, Thenardier in Les Miserables, and the piano-
playing Sidney Cohn in On Your Toes, directed by the legendary George Abbott. His
film and television credits include appearances on The Sopranos, And the Band Played
On, Sea ofLove with Al Pacino, various episodes of Law and Order, The Trials ofRosie
O'Neill, Mathnet, The Equalizer, and Sidney Lumet's 100 Centre Street. Neal Benari is very
pleased to reprise the role of Boris Thomashefsky in Michael Tilson Thomas's The
Thomashefskys. For more information visit www.nealbenari.com.
Ronit Widmann-Levy
Ronit Widmann-Levy (various roles, including Mme. Krantzfeld and Sophie Karp,
co-star of Alexander, Crown Prince ofJerusalem) has received accolades for her operatic
and concert performances throughout the world. A versatile artist equally at homeon both concert and opera stages, she has sung in opera houses and festivals in San
Francisco, Chicago, Washington, Cincinnati, Kentucky, Berlin, Munich, London,
Bangkok, and Jerusalem. She has also sung at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, the
Bath and Dartington festivals in England, the Jiidische Kulturtage in Berlin, and the
America Haus Concert Series in Munich. Ms. Widmann-Levy made her debut with the
San Francisco Symphony in February 2005 in Schumann's Das Paradies und die Peri,
conducted by Ingo Metzmacher. She has regularly performed with Michael Tilson
Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony in Carnegie Hall, with the Chicago
Symphony Orchestra, and with the New World Symphony Orchestra. Her inter-
pretation of Arnold Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire has won praise and she has
been invited to perform the work in Europe and the United States. Ronit
Widmann-Levy's repertory includes the operatic roles of Violetta in La traviata,
Konstanze in Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail, Madama Butterfly, Micaela in
Carmen, Mimi in La boheme, Liu in Turandot, Gilda in Rigoletto, and Freia in Das
Rheingold, and, on the concert stage, Carmina burana, Beethoven's Ninth Sym-
phony, and Mahler's Second and Fourth symphonies. She is renowned for her
interpretation of Ladino (aJudeo-Spanish language) Romansa and in fall 2005
embarked on a world concert tour of music from her CD Como la Rosa. Future engage-
ments include further performances of "Como la Rosa" (a concert of Ladino Romansafor voice and guitar) and "Mozart's Life Through his Letters and Music" with the
Broderick Ensemble.
Eugene Brancoveanu
Eugene Brancoveanu (various roles including Young Boris Thomashefsky and LeonBlank, co-star of The Green Millionaire) recently gave acclaimed performances as the
Pilot in Rachel Portman's The Little Prince with San Francisco Opera. In 2008-09
he returned to that company as Belcore in L'elisir d'amore, sang Karnak in Lalo's
Le Roi d'ys with the American Symphony Orchestra and the Count in Le nozze
di Figaro with the Livermore Valley Opera; performed as soloist in Elijah at the
University of California, Davis, and in Carmina burana with the Peninsula Sym-
phony Orchestra; and, with Los Angeles Philharmonic, continued in Michael
Tilson Thomas's The Thomashefskys, which he premiered at Carnegie Hall
and reprised with the New World Symphony and San Francisco Symphony.
In 2007-08 Mr. Brancoveanu made his New York City Opera debut as Pandolfe
in Cendrillon, sang the Pilot in The Little Prince, appeared as soloist in Brahms's
German Requiem with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, and performed with the
Pacific Symphony Orchestra in a Bernstein concert. Since his San Francisco Opera
debut in 2005-06 as the Second Prisoner in Fidelio, he has returned there as Christian
in Un ballo in maschera, Marullo in Rigoletto, Morales in Carmen, Frank in Die Fledermaus,
Fiorello in II barbiere di Siviglia, and the Innkeeper and Captain in Manon Lescaut. Hewas appointed an Adler Fellow at the San Francisco Opera for two seasons, directly fol-
lowing his critically acclaimed summer 2004 performances as Tarquinius in Britten's
The Rape ofLucretia with the Merola Opera Program. Having originated the role of
Marcello in Baz Luhrmann's Broadway production of La boheme, the honorary TonyAward-winner also received a 2004 LA Stage Alliance Ovation Award for his perform-
ances in the Los Angeles production. Other career highlights include Boris in Shosta-
kovich's Moskau, Tscherkomuschki at Staatstheater Stuttgart, Nicomedes in Lou Harrison's
Young Caesar for Ensemble Paralelle, a recital as part of the Schwabacher Debut Recital
Series, Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro with the International Music Festival in Gut-Immlings,
Germany, and the title role in Philip Glass's Orphee with Universitat Mozarteum Salz-
burg. His numerous roles with Romanian State Opera include the Count in Le nozze di
Figaro, the title role in Don Giovanni, Silvio in I pagliacci, Figaro in II barbiere di Siviglia,
Escamillo in Carmen, and Uberto in La serva padrona. A graduate of the AmericanInstitute of Musical Studies in Graz and the Universitat Mozarteum in Salzburg, Mr.
Brancoveanu is also a winner of the National Young Opera Singer Competition in Leip-
zig, the International Music Award in Loenberg, and the International Opera contest
"Ferruccio Tagliavini" Deutschlandsberg with Dame Joan Sutherland as Head ofJury.
Peter Grunberg
Australian-born Peter Grunberg studied in England and Switzerland, where in his early
twenties he played keyboard concertos by Bach, Mozart, Poulenc, and Gershwin with
the Orchestre de la Suisse Romade. He has been head of the music staff at
Geneva's Grand Theatre (1981-88) and at San Francisco Opera (1992-99); his
conducting debut at the Grand Theatre in 1988 with Mozart's The Magic Flute
was followed by an appointment as conductor-in-residence with the Sydney
Symphony Orchestra. Conducting engagements in the United States have
included San Francisco Opera and the San Francisco Symphony, where heholds the position of special musical assistant to Michael Tilson Thomas. Hehas directed programs of music by Bach and Handel at the Pacific Music Festival
in Sapporo, Japan, performed chamber music with members of the Vienna
Philharmonic, and given orchestral concerts at the Great Hall of the MoscowConservatory. In recent years he was invited by Michael Tilson Thomas to conduct the
New World Symphony in Miami; has appeared with vocalists Michelle De Young andThomas Hampson and with violinistJoshua Bell; was a panel member for several sym-
posia with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and, as artistic advisor to Chamber Music
San Francisco, appeared in concert in its inaugural season. Much in demand as a
teacher and coach in young artists' programs from Yale University and the Cincinnati
School of Music to San Francisco's Merola Program and Houston Grand Opera, he
has accompanied song recitals with vocalists including Frederica von Stade (with whomhe appeared at Tanglewood last summer) , Franz Grundheber, Laura Claycomb, and
Deborah Voigt.
Kirk Bookman
Kirk Bookman (production supervisor and lighting designer) has designed the light-
ing for numerous New York productions, including What Then at the Ohio Theater,
The Cook at Intar Theatre 53, Recent Tragic Events at Playwrights Horizons (starring
Heather Graham), and Shanghai Moon at Drama Department (starring Charles Bush).
His credits for the National Actors Theatre on Broadway are The Sunshine Boys (Jack
Klugman and Tony Randall), The Gin Game (Julie Harris and Charles Durning),
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and Right You Are. For the Irish Repertory Company in NewYork, his presentations include Bedbound, Playboy of the Western World, Eclipsed, and two
productions directed by Tony Walton, The Importance ofBeing Earnest and Major Barbara.
Other New York productions include Mondo Drama, Havana Is Waiting, Force Continuum,
My One Good Nerve (starring Ruby Dee), The Green Heart at Manhattan Theatre Club,
The Shawl, Rude Entertainment, The Book ofLiz (David and Amy Sedaris), Les MIZrahi
(Isaac Mizrahi), Hope Is the Thing with Feathers, As Thousands Cheer, and June Moon.
Regionally, Mr. Bookman has designed at such notable theaters as Goodspeed Opera
House (Haddam, Connecticut), Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Geva Theatre
(Rochester, New York), Coconut Grove Playhouse (Miami, Florida), and Santa Fe
Stages (Santa Fe, New Mexico). Ballet credits include English National Ballet, Santiago
Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, and Kansas City Ballet. Projects with the San Francisco Sym-
phony include The Thomashefskys, Of Thee I Sing, Oedipus Rex, The Nightingale, and AFlowering Tree. His most recent work is A Flowering Tree directed by Peter Sellars.
Linda Steinberg
Linda Steinberg (media designer) has served as executive director of The Thomashefsky
Project since it was founded in July 1998, in order to rescue the story of the Thoma-
shefskys and early American Yiddish theater's contribution to American cultural life, to
communicate this story with authenticity through the visual and performing arts, and
to preserve it in an accessible mode for future generations. During the prior decade
she was director of The Jewish Museum San Francisco, earning numerous awards for
arts excellence for the institution and personal awards for publication and exhibition
design. She has also been curator of collections for the National Museum of American
Jewish History in Philadelphia, associate director of the Center for the Arts at the
University ofJudaism in Los Angeles, and director of the Brandeis-Bardin Institute in
Simi Valley, California. In addition to being on the national lecture circuit with themes
on Jewish and Israeli art history, Ms. Steinberg has taught on the art faculties of the
University ofJudaism's Lee College for Jewish Studies, Los Angeles; the California
College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland; and San Francisco State University. Among the
institutions for which she has served as guest curator or arts consultant are the MuseumofJewish Heritage, New York City; the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, NewYork City; Moore College of Art, Philadelphia; the Skirball Museum, Los Angeles; and
the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. A visiting scholar at Stanford University, she
is currently working on a book about the Thomashefskys.
Naomi Zapata
Naomi Zapata (associate production manager) is honored to be working with the
exceptional Thomashefsky Company again after a successful engagement in Miami
Beach. A longtime South Florida resident, Ms. Zapata has worked with such organiza-
tions there as Acme Acting Company, Florida Shakespeare Theatre, Florida Grand
Opera, Coconut Grove Playhouse, the New World Symphony, and Mosaic Theatre,
where she is currently the resident stage manager. New York associations include
Brooklyn Academy of Music, La MaMa E.T.C., and Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival.
Naomi holds a B.F.A. in stage management from North Carolina School of the Arts.
Boston Symphony Orchestra
First Violins
Tamara Smirnova
Alexander Velinzon
Bonnie Bewick
Julianne Lee
Nancy Bracken
Glen Cherry
Jennie ShamesGerald Elias
Second Violins
Haldan Martinson
Ronald KnudsenRonan Lefkowitz
Frank PowdermakerCaroline Pliszka
Christopher Wu
Violas
Cathy Basrak
Edward Gazouleas
Michael Zaretsky
Kazuko Matsusaka
Lisa Suslowicz
Kathryn Sievers
Cellos
Martha Babcock
Sato KnudsenAdam Esbensen
Owen Young
Basses
Benjamin Levy
Todd Seeber
Flute
Elizabeth Ostling
Piccolo
Cynthia Meyers
Clarinet
Thomas Martin
Trumpet/Cornet
David Krauss
Bruce Hall
Trombone
Toby Oft
Percussion
Lee Vinson
James Gwin
Keyboard
Peter Grunberg
Librarian
Marshall Burlingame
Orchestra Personnel
Bruce CreditorAssistant Personnel Manager
Whether they make us laugh, cry or simply smile, the performing arts do much more than
merely entertain. The Bank of America Foundation is proud to support Tanglewood and its
education initiatives for Massachusetts students.
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