Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish: Highlights

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  • Опубліковано 14 лип 2018
  • Highlights of the folksbiene production of A Fiddler on the Roof directed by Joel Grey
    Click newyorktheater.me/2018/07/15/... for photos and a review
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КОМЕНТАРІ • 84

  • @Hollis_has_questions
    @Hollis_has_questions 5 років тому +51

    i can't stop tearing up! to hear Fiddler in Yiddish is really wonderful. i grew up an American girl with no talent for languages, but my Bubbe (Golda) and Pop (Reuben) lived with us for most of my first two decades, and they spoke mostly Yiddish. Pop emigrated in c. 1908, settled in Brooklyn, NY, and worked as a barber until, in c. 1910, he could afford to send for Bubbe, their son Harry, and Bubbe's brother, my great-uncle Larry. the rest is herstory.
    there's a particular rhythm to spoken Yiddish that i'm not getting from this production, but i understand that they have to speak very clearly -- as stage actors -- in order for their dialogue to be understood. only it's not the Yiddish i'm used to hearing, per se. my relatives spoke rapidly and imprecisely, just as any native language speaker speaks their native language. THIS Yiddish is stage Yiddish, but that's okay by me.
    i'm Jewish by ethnicity -- and cuisine (schmaltz RULES!) -- but an atheist IRL. that really doesn't matter here. this is a story not so much about immigration TO new places as it is about why people are FORCED to emigrate FROM their homelands to places unknown to them and strange, perhaps hostile, but possibly safer. idk how many folks are with me on this one, but my favorite Fiddler song is the last one, Anatevka ... for this very reason. the Russia of Fiddler is full of dangers to Jews -- the Tsar encouraged pogroms, ffs!
    and now, in 2019 America, we have a wannabe tsar who is himself encouraging pogrom-like behaviors. and he has a loud base that cheers his hateful words and policies. if we don't love it here, he says, we should leave. he's not the first to suggest such things, by no means. but what does it mean: to love America? does it mean to want our country to be all like-minded, all this way or that way, and to be intolerant to the point of assassination towards any differences? or does it mean to welcome ALL Others, to embrace a U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights that guarantees freedoms to all Americans that have never before been enumerated?
    i have to say -- and i do this not so much facetiously as ironically -- that i owe our current president a thank-you for bringing up these questions, the answers to which are pretty easy to formulate. the PROPER answers, id est. the problem we're having is with the inability of Americans to think critically and to formulate the proper questions to set against hateful philosophies.
    Fiddler on the Roof has always been my best-loved musical, ever. until a few years ago, it sat at the top of my list all by its lonesome. then came Hamilton. now i have two all-time favorite musicals, and both concern immigrants and their actual and potential contributions to a healthy society.
    the older i get, the more Yiddishisms i find myself resorting to, to describe situations. IMO, Yiddish is the BEST language for cursing; its euphemisms are so colorful and sardonic while at the same time so damn FUNNY! who doesn't know what chutzpah is? but did you know that one way to say *drop dead* in Yiddish is to say, virtually, *you should make like an onion, with your head in the ground and your feet in the air*? go ahead, Google an online Yiddish dictionary and have fun just reading how ideas are expressed in that colorful hybrid lingua franca.
    i like to say that there are as many words for different kinds of sighs in Yiddish as there are for different kinds of snow in Inuktitut. Eskimos know from snow; Jews know from sighs ...
    Nu, when am i going to be able to purchase the online Yiddish recording of Fiddler? ua-cam.com/video/cuV1yfj2NNM/v-deo.html

    • @janedoe5229
      @janedoe5229 День тому

      I see you hate Trump, who supports Israel. How are you enjoying Biden? How are you enjoying the liberal democrats turning their backs on Israel after October 7th and supporting the "poor, sad" Palestinians who massacred Israelis? FYI: Conservatives support Israel. Fundamentalists and Evangelicals read the Hebrew scriptures as well as the Christian scriptures. They know that those who bless Israel will be blessed and those who curse Israel will be cursed. You might want to double-check to see which side your bread is buttered on.

  • @sarinakopinsky915
    @sarinakopinsky915 Рік тому +5

    Fiddler in Yiddish is back, playing through Jan 1, 2023 at New World Stages in New York. The same wonderful production as before.

  • @lostmybadger
    @lostmybadger 5 років тому +44

    i watch this video almost every day, and every time i think to myself: fyedka is ripped

  • @juliusweil3788
    @juliusweil3788 5 років тому +95

    This production is amazing, these videos do not do it justice. The energy, and if you speak Yiddish it adds deeper meaning to the lyrics. This puts the Yid back in Fiddler. Steven Skybell is an amazing Fiddler. and Jackie Hoffman as Yenta is brilliant.

    • @IlaughedIcried
      @IlaughedIcried 4 роки тому +4

      WOW, Jackie Hoffman playing Yenta!! That's brilliant -- she's such a great character actress.

    • @kenmcleod3733
      @kenmcleod3733 4 роки тому +1

      IlaughedIcried And this time she is not over the top like she usually is.

    • @walterwhite4862
      @walterwhite4862 4 роки тому +1

      Steven Skybell played Tevye, not the Fiddler.

    • @jorkmorks
      @jorkmorks 4 роки тому

      I loved the production when I saw it last year and Yenta was definitely the highlight

  • @chaimphoto
    @chaimphoto 5 років тому +26

    We know every line by heart and it is still a delight to partake again.

  • @leighmusicof2324
    @leighmusicof2324 2 роки тому +6

    I miss hearing Yiddish and this made my week, perhaps even month. I would love to see this production come to Boston.

  • @boblinden4488
    @boblinden4488 5 років тому +22

    We saw it this past December at The Museum of Jewish Heritage. We loved it.

  • @deborah393
    @deborah393 2 роки тому +4

    This was such a wonderful production, which inspired me to start learning Yiddish. Saw it three times and was so disappointed when it closed. I would have seen it at least three times more!

  • @ellynmacgregor8210
    @ellynmacgregor8210 5 років тому +9

    Mazel tov, Mr. Grey and your wonderfully talented troupe! And aren't we all lucky to have this now?

  • @rockubabe
    @rockubabe 5 років тому +12

    I just saw the show on Broadway and it was amazing! It must have been very difficult for the actors to memorize their lines.

  • @autumnlheureux4231
    @autumnlheureux4231 5 років тому +7

    Love fiddler...love the movie, & this production looks amazing. I was a props mistress, follow spot, & photographer for a community theatre production of Fiddler. We had a great cast. Fiddler is a very tech heavy show. Though it seems minimalist. It’s really not, I majored in cultural anthropology. I def got to incorporate some of my study in our production.

  • @peteralfano4278
    @peteralfano4278 4 роки тому +3

    Amazing, moving, thrillingly staged and it all makes sense. A beautiful experience

  • @LoudCitizen
    @LoudCitizen 6 років тому +16

    Well, this is a dream come true. I’ve got half of my family interested in flying into New York City to see this, even ones who I’ve never been able to entice here.. Myself, I’ve reserved tickets for my for birthday - I know I’ll be bawling during the whole show - and if family and friends want to come, there’s a good chance I’ll see this at least three times. I CANNOT WAIT!

    • @GC-Haendlach
      @GC-Haendlach 5 років тому +2

      I found your situation as you described it amazingly similar to mine. Additionally, some more info is that on most days I would be plenty challenged to make it to the east side of Madison (I live on the west side), I saw this as such a once in a lifetime
      Opportunity that I simply announced That I was going to NY -who wants to come?

    • @Hollis_has_questions
      @Hollis_has_questions 5 років тому +2

      i have a very clear memory of seeing this with my parents on Broadway in the late '60s (Hershel Bernardi, not Zero Mostel ... alas). my dad and i were both silently weeping -- tears streaming down our cheeks -- at various times. i've also seen it under a tent on Long Island (Robert Merrill) and on the London stage in c. 1973-74. but DAMN, i'd love to see this in NYC, city of my birth (well, Brooklyn, technically)!

    • @Hollis_has_questions
      @Hollis_has_questions 2 роки тому

      Nu, how was it?

  • @samkahn7567
    @samkahn7567 4 роки тому +5

    If you look in the dictionary for a definition of the word kvetch, you’ll see a picture of me. I don’t like anything but I loved this show. Ever since the original Fiddler, I’ve seen the show 3 or 4 times and some were very good. This might be the best. There was something about the feeling that was conveyed to the audience that was almost spiritual. This was hamish, google hamish Yiddish if you don’t understand the word.

    • @IlaughedIcried
      @IlaughedIcried 2 роки тому +1

      LOLing at your ownership of kvetching! :) And what you just wrote, about there being something spiritual to the feel of this show -- I feel it even just watching this video. It radiates out. There's something about even the IDEA of Fiddler being performed in Yiddish that leaves me verklempt... it's like the story is coming home to itself. I SO wish I could have seen the play during its run in NYC.

  • @pialestrange5826
    @pialestrange5826 4 роки тому +20

    this is actually very interesting. as a german, i can actually understand a bit bc they either sound the same or are the same words

    • @Luverofmysoul2
      @Luverofmysoul2 3 роки тому +2

      Yiddish is Germanic in nature and not Hebrew that's why.

    • @hmped
      @hmped 3 роки тому +6

      Yiddish is actually a mash up of multiple languages like English is!

    • @keldonmcfarland2969
      @keldonmcfarland2969 3 роки тому +1

      @Pia Lestrange
      As an English speaker, listening to German always "sounds" familiar, like a kind of code I should be able to understand. It's seeing a puzzle out of focus and with pieces missing, but knowing the basic picture.
      The pacing of the words, inflection of pitch at key points....
      I am very familiar with "Fiddler..." so this is a show I greatly regret that I missed. I really would have liked to seen it.

    • @MOE435
      @MOE435 3 роки тому +1

      Yiddish was derived from German in by Ashkenazi Jews rooted in Germany hundreds of yrs ago. In fact, the very term Ashkenaz means Germany in Hebrew

    • @waltergro9102
      @waltergro9102 2 роки тому +1

      @@MOE435 Yes, and medieval Jews called the German they spoke (and wrote) Idish Taitsh (Judeo-German). It only diverged when Jews emigrated to eastern Europe and their language integrated many Slavic features. In Germany a divergent evolution took place because of ghettoization. But for the medieval period no difference is established. Back then "German" meant the many High German dialects.

  • @cindchan
    @cindchan 5 років тому +6

    I would have LOVED to see this version!!

    • @organboi
      @organboi 5 років тому

      It's still playing

  • @thertsman8233
    @thertsman8233 4 роки тому +7

    that's daniel kahn! I know that voice by heart.

  • @martinpatrick1746
    @martinpatrick1746 5 років тому +5

    Topol starred in the film verison and he returned to the stage for a farewell performance in Australia.

    • @kenmcleod3733
      @kenmcleod3733 4 роки тому

      Martin Patrick And he toured in the role in the US in the past decade, and was superb!

  • @antm64
    @antm64 3 роки тому +2

    That bottle dance doesn't need any sort of translation! Fabulous!!

    • @singerAR0406
      @singerAR0406 Рік тому

      None of it does!

    • @antm64
      @antm64 Рік тому

      @@singerAR0406 You're right!

  • @Big_Steve11
    @Big_Steve11 4 роки тому +1

    I just found out this is closing on Jan 5th, I have to get to see it again

  • @GreenleafPro
    @GreenleafPro 5 років тому +1

    This looks fantastic!

  • @josemara
    @josemara 6 років тому +5

    So beautiful. I love these songs.
    First view, first like, first comment.

  • @jasobres
    @jasobres 5 років тому +12

    A fidlr afn dakh. Meshuggeh, nayn?

  • @hooey4362
    @hooey4362 3 роки тому +3

    i'm hoping to learn yiddish someday but i'm already learning a couple other languages and there's unfortunately not much i'd be able to do with it (i'm american). still, it's such a beautiful language!

  • @broadwaymelody33
    @broadwaymelody33 5 років тому +35

    The script was written phonetically so they did their best with what they had lol

    • @Hollis_has_questions
      @Hollis_has_questions 5 років тому +8

      that explains my issue with the spoken Yiddish in the stage production. but i'm still okay with it.

    • @ZiSlepovitch
      @ZiSlepovitch 2 роки тому +2

      @@Hollis_has_questions What do you mean? The stage production used the klal-shprakh, which is academically and literature-wise accepted norm of Yiddish. It is phonetically closer to the Litvak dialect, except EYs that are OYs, and some other details. Klal-shprakh also has three genders like other Eastern / Central European dialects. It sure is not an American Hasidic Yiddish based on Hungarian-Polish ("Central") group of dialects.

    • @Hollis_has_questions
      @Hollis_has_questions 2 роки тому +2

      @@ZiSlepovitch All you have to do is use your ears: Listen to them. They sound stiff and correct , but they don’t sound relaxed and conversational. It sounds like memorized and regurgitated dialogue. It may be technically correct, but there’s no spirit in it. If I were grading it, I’d give it a B+.

    • @ZiSlepovitch
      @ZiSlepovitch 2 роки тому +1

      @@Hollis_has_questions I listened to them about 500 times :) not everyone is fluent in accent, and I do acknowledge that to a native speaker it might be a harder experience than to a non-native or non-speaker; however, at the end, it is acting that counts, in addition to all words pronounced correctly, even if with an accent.

    • @Hollis_has_questions
      @Hollis_has_questions 2 роки тому +1

      @@ZiSlepovitch You seem to be taking this personally. Relax, I did not impugn the acting. I just remarked that their speech is stilted and lacks a relaxed flow. It sounds like they learned the dialogue phonetically, just as they original commenter noted. They’re speaking slowly and deliberately, in order to be understood from the stage. Just like I’m speaking to you now. LOL

  • @robertkahan3826
    @robertkahan3826 5 років тому +4

    I’ve seen the show 12 times so far at Stage 42. Unless I’m wrong, the woman playing Golde in this clip is not Ms. Jennifer Babiak. Can someone clarify? I thought virtually the entire cast downtown moved with the show uptown. Does anyone know who the actress is in this clip as Golde? Curious!

    • @judybarlas6409
      @judybarlas6409 5 років тому +1

      Jennifer Babiak took over the role in the first summer, while the show was still at the museum.

  • @joshualebowitz
    @joshualebowitz Місяць тому

    Is the entire video available for purchase anywhere?

  • @imisstoronto3121
    @imisstoronto3121 4 роки тому +3

    What's with the volume? It's non existent

  • @alainvalette8744
    @alainvalette8744 4 роки тому

    Do you know, where I can find all the lyrics in Yiddish from this new production of musical "Fiddler on the Roof" (A fidler afn dakh) and if it is possible to listen all full songs from the CD online on intenet? Thanks in advance for your precious information. All the best to you!

  • @eliatkach6187
    @eliatkach6187 2 роки тому

    Very nice

  • @guidoallascalahaarverlange4094
    @guidoallascalahaarverlange4094 4 роки тому +3

    While this seems to be a memorable production despite not having much of a stage set therefore lacking the magical "Chagallesque" atmosphere, I'm sure it has alot of merits like an excellent cast even though it of course cannot wipe out memories of Topol as Tevye or the wonderful Michael Gluecksmann, a leading Tevye in Europea veteran of 9 productions, yet, especially in Germany

  • @boogerie
    @boogerie Рік тому +1

    Hard to believe the original was in English

  • @singsingsing22
    @singsingsing22 4 роки тому +1

    The actress on the left at 1:10!! Who is she?? She looks so familiar.

  • @lucianogueira4922
    @lucianogueira4922 4 роки тому

    Não entendo mas sei a história

  • @eliatkach6187
    @eliatkach6187 2 роки тому

    . Молодцы

  • @terts
    @terts 5 років тому +1

    Terrible volume on videos! Would love to see a traveling show.

  • @user-dd3zp4pe3m
    @user-dd3zp4pe3m 3 роки тому +2

    Зеер шейн

  • @alisvolatpropriis4898
    @alisvolatpropriis4898 5 років тому +7

    Die Cossacks oiched kennen redden Yiddish? 😂

  • @benschroth7717
    @benschroth7717 4 роки тому +1

    It would help if it were audible. Neyn?

  • @savtazvia3456
    @savtazvia3456 5 років тому +7

    Yes. Their pronunciation needs some help.

    • @sfmike711
      @sfmike711 5 років тому +12

      Savta Zvia: So, be a sweetheart and help them with their pronunciation!

    • @lyricrogersofficial
      @lyricrogersofficial 4 роки тому +1

      They read it phonetically.

  • @denisadenise9309
    @denisadenise9309 Місяць тому

    Hier haben das Vorteil die, die wenigstens Deutsch verstehen. Warum denn nur? 😊

  • @xappuxok
    @xappuxok 6 років тому +8

    They need some help with their pronunciation.

    • @Filiomena
      @Filiomena 5 років тому +8

      We all need some help with our pronunciation.

    • @sfmike711
      @sfmike711 5 років тому +1

      CoCo studios: And your pronunciation in Yiddish is that much better?

    • @Filiomena
      @Filiomena 5 років тому

      @@sfmike711 Yes it is, and take my word for it.

    • @sfmike711
      @sfmike711 5 років тому

      @@Filiomena : Was I speaking to you?

    • @Filiomena
      @Filiomena 5 років тому

      @@sfmike711 You be nice.