Dr. Michael Ochs, and noted scholar on Jewish music, Professor Mark Slobin
will present the talk, “Tailoring an Operetta to Its Audience:
Rumshinsky’s Di goldene kale (1923)” at the Center for Jewish History (15 West 16th
Street, NYC) on Friday, February 22, 2013 at 10:30 A.M., in what promises to be an
engaging discussion of the issues surrounding the re-construction and
arrangement of a Yiddish theater work.
Joseph Rumshinsky’s 1923 musical comedy, Di goldene kale (The Golden
Bride) was a work carefully designed to both move and entertain its specialized
American audience: Yiddish-speaking immigrants from Eastern Europe and
their families. With pathos (the basic ingredient), love, “Jewish-style”
music, a ritual kiddush, acts set in a shtetl and in America, a shadchen, a
lullaby that slips into Russian, assimilated Jews speaking broken Yiddish, a
paean to America, as well as other compelling features, it offered its
attendees a meaningful evening based on their past and present experiences.…
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