Folksbiene To Follow ‘Fiddler’ With Premiere Of Opera About The Rise Of The Nazis
Ted Rosenthal and Stephen Robinson on March 7, 2018. Image by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images
By Talya Zax November 27, 2018
Erich Rosenthal, a Jewish scholar, watched the rise of the Nazis from the United States. He’d managed to escape his native Germany, but his family wasn’t so lucky.
Now his son, the composer Ted Rosenthal, is poised to give new voice to the tormented years his father spent praying for his family from afar.
In the jazz opera “Dear Erich,” which will premiere in a joint production by the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene and New York City Opera this January, the younger Rosenthal gives voice to the more than 200 letters his father exchanged with his own mother, Herta, who was stuck in Germany, between 1938 and 1941.
Playbill reports that the opera will run at the Museum of Jewish Heritage January 9 through 13. It’s the Folksbiene’s first production to follow its critically and commercially successful all-Yiddish take on “Fiddler on the Roof,” which will transfer to the Off-Broadway theater Stage 42 in February.
Watch a song from the opera, below.
Did you know that only 2% of Forward readers donate to support our nonprofit newsroom? That 2% make it possible for millions to read the Forward without a paywall or subscription — removing any barriers to the full and fair Jewish story.
But while the Forward is free to read, it isn’t free to produce. Big stories — like deep dives into the antisemitism data, political scoops or reporting trips to college campuses — take months of research and fact-checking. All while we keep you informed of what you need to know each day.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Forward Publisher & CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
