AMERICAN OPERA PROJECTS
PRESENTS
THE GREAT DICTIONARY OF
THE YIDDISH LANGUAGE
דער גרויסער ווערטערבּוך פֿון
דער ייִדישער שפּראַך
Music by Alex Weiser
Libretto by Ben Kaplan
Concert Premiere at
Bang on a Can’s Long Play Festival
In Collaboration with American Opera Projects (AOP) and
The Neighborhood: An Urban Center for Jewish Life
May 4, 2024 | 2:00 pm & 5:00 pm
South Oxford Space Great Room
138 South Oxford St., Brooklyn, NY 11217
Program Note
For years we had heard stories about the Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language, an infamous and incomplete multi-volume reference work. Plagued by arguments over spelling and competing Yiddishist ideologies, after more than two decades of work the dictionary remained unfinished past the letter Alef (the very first letter of the Yiddish alphabet). As we learned more about this dictionary from reading Alec “Leyzer” Burko’s dissertation (Saving Yiddish: Yiddish Studies and the Language Sciences in America, 1940-1970), we knew the story needed to be an opera.
The true historical details border on the absurd — hours long arguments over minutiae of spelling, acrimonious debates over the dictionary’s ambitious scope. And yet, the tragic passion in Yudel Mark’s determination to make an impossibly detailed and expansive reference work for a fast disappearing readership and the ardor with which Max Weinreich defended the sanctity of the takones — YIVO’s pre-war codification of spelling standards — speak to much deeper questions at the core of post-war Jewish life: What does it mean to lose your language? What can we bring with us as time changes our culture? How can we make sense of the enormous loss left by the Holocaust?
Our opera explores the true story of this dictionary. It also imagines into the story an additional metaphysical layer. In our telling, Yudel Mark is haunted by the three alefs of the Yiddish language who propel him to do his work with a prophet’s fervor. The alefs put into words what in historical reality was bubbling right under the surface: For these Yiddish linguists, their work was a kind of religion. They saw the fate of Yiddish as inextricably linked with the fate of the Jewish people. Where we depart from the historical record, it is always in the spirit of the story, in search of its deeper truth.
What you will hear tonight is a concert performance of the full opera. We hope to bring a full production of this show to a theater near you in the coming seasons. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy it. Thank you for joining us on the journey of creating this piece!
—Alex Weiser & Ben Kaplan
CAST:
Shtumer Alef Kristin Gornstein
Komets Alef Caitlin McKechney
Pasekh Alef Kelly Guerra
Yudel Mark Jason Weisinger
Max Weinreich Gideon Dabi
performers
KRISTIN GORNSTEIN — MEZZO-SOPRANO
Praised as “a fine actress with a deep, spacious sound” [Parterre], American mezzo-soprano Kristin Gornstein brings her “rich-voiced mezzo-soprano” and “lines of an uncannily silky legato” [New York Times] to her work, ranging from the traditional to the edgy and imaginative. In the fall of 2022 she made her Lincoln Center debut in the China Now Music Festival, singing the role of Wang Sheng in the US premiere of the opera Painted Skin. Recent performances include the title role in Dido and Aeneas with Opera Fort Collins, Marte in Torrejón y Velasco’s La púrpura de la rosa with the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, and Tonia Ko’s Smoke and Distance with the Brooklyn Art Song Society. In previous seasons she portrayed Ramiro in Mozart’s La finta giardiniera in a co-production by On Site Opera and Atlanta Opera, and performed in the ensemble of Michael Gordon and Deborah Artman’s groundbreaking opera Acquanetta, both in the world premiere at the Prototype Festival and at Bard Summerscape. She has toured with Mark Morris Dance Company’s acclaimed production of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, and appeared at Lincoln Center with the New York Philharmonic for Honegger’s Jean D’Arc au Bûcher. Visit her at www.kristingornstein.com
GIDEON DABI — BARITONE
Baritone Gideon Dabi continues to receive great acclaim delivering “powerfully felt, beautifully performed and articulated” performances across a wide array of genres and styles. His “earnest interpretations” have thrilled audiences throughout the United States, to Israel, Italy, and back again. Last season, Gideon sang Dandini in La Cenerentola with Opera Columbus as well as the studio recording of Gerald Cohen’s Steal a Pencil For Me, which he premiered with Opera Colorado, and he made his debut with Jerusalem Opera in Ahran Harlap’s Therese Raquin. In 2021, Gideon made his company and role debut with the Northern Lights Music Festival as Dandini , repeated the role in his company debut with Annapolis Opera, and was a featured singer on Full Frontal with Samantha Bee. In the 2018-19 Season, he returned to The Dallas Opera as Schaunard in La bohème, following his debut with the company in Carmen. He has spent multiple seasons with Sarasota Opera where he has been heard as Dr. Malatesta in Don Pasquale and as Schaunard.
CAITLIN MCKECHNEY — MEZZO-SOPRANO
Caitlin McKechney, mezzo-soprano, is a vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, song-writer and producer. As a performer, she has been seen most recently as a principle in Letters That You Will Not Get: Women's Voices from the Great War with The American Opera Project, for which she also served as associate producer. She has been seen in a wide variety of roles including Inez in Andy Vores’s operatic treatment of Sartre’sNo Exit and Suzuki in Madama Butterfly (both with Florida Grand Opera), the title role in Carmen (Opera Memphis, Painted Sky Opera, Tacoma Opera), Ruth in Pirates of Penzance(Opera North), Lilli Vanessi in Kiss Me Kate (Broadway Theater of Pitman, North StreetPlayhouse and NightBlue Theater) and a member of the 6 person actor-musician production of The Irish and How They Got That Way by Frank McCourt. Caitlin’s first musical theater work that she composed, Muse: The Women of Picasso, was included in Shrill Fest 2.0, produced by the feminist theater group The Shrill Collective. Caitlin is also “head Cowgirl” and co-arranger for the Opera Cowgirls, an all-female alt-country opera fusion band that has performed at opera companies, universities, symphonies and dive bars across the country. caitlinmckechney.com
KELLY GUERRA — MEZZO-SOPRANO
Lauded as “exquisite” in the SF Chronicle for her summer 2023 performance as Renata in Cruzar la Cara de la Luna with West Edge Opera, Kelly Guerra continues to light up stages as a versatile and passionate performer. Recent work includes Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia with the Princeton Festival, the title role in Astor Piazzolla’s María de Buenos Aires with Kentucky Opera, Ruth Bader Ginsburg in Scalia/Ginsburg with Chautauqua Opera Company and the title role in Luisa Fernanda with Opera Williamsburg. Other notable past engagements include work with Opera Omaha, Los Angeles Philharmonic, California Symphony, Lucerne Festival, and a national tour with Esperanza Spalding in Wayne Shorter’s …(Iphigenia).
Upcoming engagements include Carlotta in Zorro with Opera Santa Barbara and the alto soloist in Handel’s Messiah with the National Chorale at Lincoln Center.
JASON WEISINGER — TENOR
Jason Weisinger is a singer, music director/producer, composer/orchestrator, performer, and educator based in Long Island City, NY. He has sung with many esteemed ensembles including the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, American Classical Orchestra, The Crossing, Choir of Trinity Wall Street, the Mark Morris Dance Group, The Boston POPS, & the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra. His voice appears on Last Week Tonight’s EMMY-nominated song Eat Shit Bob: The Musical as well as The Crossing’s 2019 and 2022 GRAMMY-nominated albums. As "...an Olympian of a music director..." (The New York Times), Jason specializes in developing new musicals. Most recently he served as Music Assistant on Hermés’ immersive musical ‘Love Around the Block’ by Dave Malloy. Jason also serves as composer/orchestrator/arranger at Park Avenue Synagogue, writing for cantor Azi Schwartz. j
creative team
ALEX WEISER - COMPOSER
Broad gestures and rich textures are hallmarks of the “compelling” (The New York Times), “deliciously wistful” (San Francisco Classical Voice), music of composer Alex Weiser. Born and raised in New York City, Weiser creates acutely cosmopolitan music combining a deeply felt historical perspective with a vibrant forward-looking creativity hailed as “personal, expressive, and bold” (I Care If You Listen). Weiser’s debut album and all the days were purple, was named a 2020 Pulitzer Prize Finalist and cited as “a meditative and deeply spiritual work whose unexpected musical language is arresting and directly emotional.” Released by Cantaloupe Music in April 2019, the album includes songs in Yiddish and English. Active as an opera composer, Weiser is currently working on two operas. Tevye’s Daughters, written with librettist Stephanie Fleischmann, is a commission from American Lyric Theater. Based on Sholem Aleichem’s iconic Yiddish stories, it explores the tragic death of Tevye’s lesser-known daughter, Shprintse. The opera also traces the lasting impact of Shprintse’s fate on her sisters who are now elderly and living in New York. The Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language with librettist Ben Kaplan is set in 1950s post-war New York and follows linguist Yudel Mark as he sets out to write the world’s first fully comprehensive Yiddish dictionary — an effort of linguistic preservation, and a memorial to the dead.
Alex Weiser is an alum from the 2017-19 cycle of the Composers & the Voice training program, a competitive biannual fellowship offered to composers, librettists, and composer/librettist teams. Created and led by Composers & the Voice Artistic Director Steven Osgood, the two-year fellowship includes a year of working with the company’s Resident Ensemble of Singers and professional instructors followed by a year of continued promotion and career development through AOP and its strategic partnerships.
BEN KAPLAN - LIBRETTIST
Born in Brooklyn, NY, librettist Ben Kaplan studied literature and theater at Williams College. He currently serves as Director of Education at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, where he directs programs that teach Jewish history and culture to a broad and diverse audience. These programs include the Uriel Weinreich Summer Program in Yiddish Language, Literature, and Culture and the YIVO-Bard Winter Program on Ashkenazi Civilization. As a librettist, he creates historically informed dramatic works that chronicle turning points in history lost to contemporary cultural discourse.
MUSIC DIRECTOR
David Bloom (he/him) is a conductor equally at home in orchestral repertoire, opera, and new music, noted for his “dazzling precision and grace” (San Francisco Chronicle), “intelligence, elegance, and passion” (Opera News), “ferocious and focused” (The New York Times) performances, and “breathtaking and inspired programming” (Shepherd Express). He dedicates his work to collaborating with artists and communities to inspire creativity, empathy, and joy.
In such venues as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Kennedy Center, and Park Avenue Armory, Bloom has guest conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic, American Composers Orchestra, Washington National Opera, Bang on a Can All-Stars, Jacaranda, The Crossing, Ensemble Connect, Choir of Trinity Wall Street, and Kronos Quartet and worked with soloists Dashon Burton, David Byrne, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Helga Davis, Isabel Leonard, Iarla Ó Lionáird, Courtney Love, Hila Plitmann, Dawn Upshaw, Andrew Yee, and many more. In June of 2024, he will conduct the opening of Lincoln Center’s 2024 Summer for the City festival with a program of operatic standards and original songs with famed drag artists Sapphira Crystál, Monét X Change, and Thorgy Thor.
instrumentalists
GRAEME STEELE JOHNSON - CLARINET
His diverse artistic endeavors range from a TEDx talk comparing Mozart and Seinfeld, to his reconstruction of a forgotten 125-year-old work by Charles Martin Loeffler, to performances of Mozart's Clarinet Concerto in its original form on an elongated clarinet that he commissioned. Johnson’s recent and upcoming performances include appearances at the Library of Congress, Morgan Library, Harvard Musical Association, Chamber Music Northwest, Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, Ravinia, Phoenix Chamber Music Festival, Emerald City Music, Maverick Concerts, Music Mountain and Yellow Barn, as well as solo recitals at The Kennedy Center and Chicago’s Dame Myra Hess series. He is also a regular performer at the Annapolis Chamber Music Festival, Archipelago Collective Chamber Music Festival and Caroga Lake Music Festival. As a concerto soloist, he has performed twice with the Vienna International Orchestra, as well as with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, Caroga Arts Ensemble, Vermont Mozart Festival Orchestra and the CME Chamber Orchestra.
ZHANBO ZHENG - VIOLA
Known for his "beautiful tone and control, tremendous energy and
thoughtful musicality" (Violinist), violist Zhanbo Zheng was the first
Chinese to win the Primrose International Viola Competition. He has
also taken top prizes in other major competitions including the Irving
M. Klein International String Competition and the Washington
International Competition for Strings. He was also a recipient of the
Emerging Artist Award from the Saint Botolph Club Foundation.
An avid chamber musician, Zheng has collaborated with distinguished
artists, such as Jonathan Biss, Anthony McGill, Pamela Frank,
Gary Hoffman, and others. He has been invited to perform at the
Philadelphia Chamber Music Society as a guest artist, and his music
festival appearances include Marlboro Music Festival, Music@Menlo,
Ravinia Steans Music Institute, Verbier Festival Academy, Caramoor
Evnin Rising Stars, and Cleveland ChamberFest. Zheng has performed
in leading venues such as Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center for
the Performing Arts, Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, and
Kaufman Music Center.
LUKE POEPPEL - PIANO
Luke Poeppel is an American-German conductor based in Rochester, New York. He is a Master’s student of Brad Lubman, serving as the assistant conductor of Musica Nova at the Eastman School of Music. With this ensemble, he has led works by composers including Knussen, Abrahamsen, Davies, Webern, Manoury; he also conducted the U.S. premiere of Hannah Kendall’s shouting forever into the receiver (2022). Poeppel was one of two conductors selected for Ensemble Modern’s 2023-2024 ICCS young_professionals program, culminating in a 2024 performance in Frankfurt at the cresc… festival. Luke has served as a cover/assistant conductor for the Orchestra of the League of Composers (he will make his conducting debut this season), Ensemble Signal (TIME:SPANS Festival), and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s.
SULIMAN TEKALLI - VIOLIN
Concert violinist Suliman Tekalli's performing as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician has taken him throughout the U.S., Canada, Central America, and Europe. Top prize winner of the Seoul International Music Competition in Korea, as well as first prize in the Blount National String Competition, and prizes in the 2013 Sendai International Music Competition in Japan, 2010 Lipizer International Violin Competition in Italy, 2009 Szeryng International Violin Competition in Mexico, he has appeared with orchestras such as the International Sejong Soloists, Sendai Philharmonic, and Orquesta Sinfónica del Estado de México.
DARA BLOOM - BASS
LAUREN CAULEY - VIOLIN
Violinist and improviser Lauren Cauley has quickly risen in New York’s avant-garde as an artist known for genre-breaking performances that expand the sonic possibilities of her instrument. Now a “mainstay of the local new-music scene” (New York Times), she’s built a reputation as an interpreter of “fierce precision” and “excellence uncompromised” (Cleveland Classical).
Lauren has worked with artists and composers such as Anahita Abbasi, Hans Abrahamsen, Ambrose Akinmusire, Bedouine, Richard Carrick, Chance the Rapper, Ellie Goulding, Georg Friedrich Haas, Pauline Kim Harris, Jónsi & Alex Somers (Sigur Rós), Ezra Koenig (Vampire Weekend), David Lang, George Lewis, Jeffrey Mumford, Qasim Naqvi, Steve Reich, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Together X Tomorrow (투모로우바이투게더), Wadada Leo Smith, Zeynep Toraman, Emily Wells, Saul Williams, Julia Wolfe, and Michelle Zauner (Japanese Breakfast)
MADELINE FAYETTE - CELLO
Madeline Fayette, praised for her “charisma…lovely tone and phrasing,” is part of a new generation of artist-teachers creating audiences through inventive community engagement and compelling performances. An in-demand collaborator in both standard and experimental repertoire, she regularly performs with the Fair Trade Chamber Music Society, New York Classical Players, Shattered Glass, and innovative genre-defying organizations Cantata Profana and Heartbeat Opera. She has also appeared with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, and Broadway’s recent revival of Hello, Dolly with Bette Midler. Based in New York, Ms. Fayette has performed at some of the city’s most prestigious venues, including Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Sawdust, Roulette, and the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
ABOUT BANG ON A CAN'S LONG PLAY FESTIVAL
Bang on a Can presents the 3rd annual Long Play, a three-day destination music festival, Friday, May 3 through Sunday, May 5, 2024! Featuring 50+ concerts (including Soundwalk Collective with Patti Smith, Jeff Mills's Tomorrow Comes the Harvest, Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians, Deerhoof, BlankFor.ms + Jason Moran, Ligeti Quartet, Raw Poetic and Damu the Fudgemunk, Bang on a Can All-Stars performing Ryuichi Sakamoto's 1996, ), Long Play also showcases a dense network of inventive music venues in Brooklyn – with performances at BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music), Roulette, Public Records, BRIC, Irondale Center for the Arts, The Center for Fiction, plus outdoor events and more. https://bangonacan.org/long-play-2024/
ABOUT THE NEIGHBORHOOD: AN URBAN CENTER FOR JEWISH LIFE
The Neighborhood: An Urban Center for Jewish Life is an inclusive and welcoming community. We aim to nurture Brooklyn’s role as a hub for Jewish art and culture, locally and from around the world. We produce programs that raise up underrepresented perspectives, and welcome the thousands of Brooklynites that have not yet found their Jewish home. We are creating a welcoming space that reflects the spirit of Brooklyn -- future-thinking and deeply historical, iconoclastic, and sacred.
SPECIAL THANKS
We wish to express our heartfelt thanks to the many individuals who aided in the creation of this work. Thank you to Ruby Namdar, Stefanie Halpern, Sandra Levykh, Cori Ellison, Sam Sussman, Ronit MuszkaTblit, Laura Newmark, Kryssy Wright, Miranda Cooper, Elinor Milchan, Leyzer Burko, Dovid Braun, Gregory Spears, Chris Rogerson, Fjóla Evans, Kristin Gornstein, Krysty Swann, Blythe Gaissert, Jason Weisinger, John Taylor Ward, Paul Kerekes, Lindsey Hope Pearlman, Philip Trevino, Caitlin McKechney, Kate Maroney, Sarah Klopfenstein, Michael Kelly, Anna Shnur-Fishman, David Bloom, Gideon Dabi, Kelly Guerra, Charles Jarden, Joel Kalow, Dylan Seders Hoffman, Noriko Okabe, and Christopher Smith who provided invaluable help and input during the development process of this opera. We are also very grateful for support from the 14th Street Y’s LABA, Asylum Arts, The Neighborhood, American Opera Projects, Bang on a Can, and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research which helped make The Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language possible. We would also like to thank James Rosenfield, David Matlow, Michael Leavitt, Daniel Judisman Goran, Howard Brown, Mark Silverman, and Zona Hostetler for their individual contributions in support of The Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language.
GIVE NOW TO
“THE GREAT DICTIONARY OF THE YIDDISH LANGUAGE”
The Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. AOP’s programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.
The Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language is also supported by the York University Centre for Jewish Studies and the American Society for Jewish Music
AOP’s programs are made possible in part by the Howard Gilman Foundation, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc., The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Amphion Foundation, BMI, and the contributions of many individuals.
