Steven Skybell brings him brilliantly to life with a perfect combination of whimsy, depth and humanity and the right kind of big, all-embracing voice to animate his songs. Lyric Opera of Chicago boasts having the most loyal subscribers in North America. The cast is superb from top to bottom, but at the center of it all is Tevye, one of the great characters of American theater - a hard worker, family man, folksy philosopher and all-around mensch. Nominated Best Opera Orchestra by the International Opera Awards 2018, the Lyric Opera Orchestra has been a vital and integral part of Lyric Opera. He injects movement and verve into the big production numbers, with first-rate, tradition-tinged dancing originally choreographed by Otto Pichler. Indeed, today’s rise of anti-Semitism across the world, the new waves of migrants in the Middle East and Africa and a war taking place in Ukraine on some of same lands where shtetls once stood only heightens the relevance and potency of this story.īut if this production shines an unblinking light on the historical reality behind “Fiddler on the Roof,” Kosky also pays abundant attention to the story’s wit, tenderness and even fun. These sets, like the production as whole, bring into relief the grim truth that is sometimes glossed over in some versions of “Fiddler on the Roof.” The Jews were diasporic people for centuries, and they were relegated in czarist Russia to what was known as the Pale of Settlement, and, as the musical makes clear, they are faced with new violence and still more resettlement as the Russian Revolution loomed. The Lyric Opera of Chicago presents opera and storytelling performances with an emphasis on social justice issues, in the beautiful, historic Civic Opera.

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