‘If I were a rich man ...’
Fiddler on the Roof
Jerry Bock
Replay
Fiddler on the Roof is woven into the DNA of the Komische Oper Berlin like few other musicals, with the first East German production under Walter Felsenstein performed an astonishing five hundred times. When Barrie Kosky revived the piece in 2017, the acclaim was immense. In its review, The New York Times wrote that ‘this is quite possibly the most convincing – and least embarrassingly cliché‑ridden – Fiddler imaginable’.
In the shtetl of Anatevka, life is lived strictly according to Jewish tradition. But the milkman Tevye struggles with it. And with his God. And with the stubborn hearts of his three eldest daughters – until pogroms threaten the life of the small village community…
Caught between humour and human suffering, Fiddler on the Roof presents one of the twentieth century’s most life-affirming tales of love, marriage, and misadventure.
In the shtetl of Anatevka, life is lived strictly according to Jewish tradition. But the milkman Tevye struggles with it. And with his God. And with the stubborn hearts of his three eldest daughters – until pogroms threaten the life of the small village community…
Caught between humour and human suffering, Fiddler on the Roof presents one of the twentieth century’s most life-affirming tales of love, marriage, and misadventure.
A long time ago, or perhaps not so very long ago ... there was this Jewish shtetl called Anatevka, in Russia’s vast expanses, where the milkman Tevye lived with his wife Golde and their five daughters. The three oldest, Zeitel, Hodel and Chava, were expected to marry in accordance with the venerable dictates of Jewish tradition, and to find husbands as wealthy as possible thanks to the ministrations of the matchmaker Yente.
But the daughters are headstrong in matters of love. It’s not the butcher that Zeitel falls for, but a poor tailor called Motel Kamzoil. Hodel loses her heart to the family tutor Perchik, a revolutionary, while Chava chooses an intellectual, the Orthodox Christian Fyedka. Against a background of troubles and celebrations, fear of pogroms targeting the village, Golde’s worries about the children and Tevye’s struggle for his daily bread and true piety, the girls call time-honoured traditions into question, posing tough challenges for their big-hearted father. Tevye strives to do the right thing and pardons all their crazy ideas. Well, not quite all. There are limits to his magnanimity, set by faith and tradition – for the sake of which he disowns his daughter Chava. A short time later a pogrom happens, the villagers scatter in all directions, the family is torn apart. Tevye, his kids, friends and neighbours leave Anatevka, their home, for good.
Musical based on the tales of Sholem Aleichem [1964]
With the express permission of Arnold Perl
Book by Joseph Stein
Music by Jerry Bock
Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick
German text by Rolf Merz and Gerhard Hagen
Produced for the stage in New York by Harold Prince
Original stage production and choreography in New York by Jerome Robbins
With the express permission of Arnold Perl
Book by Joseph Stein
Music by Jerry Bock
Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick
German text by Rolf Merz and Gerhard Hagen
Produced for the stage in New York by Harold Prince
Original stage production and choreography in New York by Jerome Robbins
In the repertoire since 3 December 2017
Recommended from grade 7
German
3 hr 15 min incl. intermission