Posted: 9/18/22 at 7:18am
Barrie Kosky's international production of Fiddler on the Roof has premiered at the Lyric Opera in Chicago. It combines an epic chorus with a stark grey and white design. Anatevka's a dingy, overcrowded place. This clutters the peppier songs but devastates in the dramatic scenes.
He's enough cast leftover to provide a group of menacing Cossacks. Other productions I've seen leave these characters as an afterthought. A few leftover chorus boys. Here they're tall muscle men looming over the cast. Their attack at the wedding is particularly brutal. This is the first time I've spotted the structural parallels between Fiddler and Cabaret.
In contrast, comic characters like Yente and the Rabbi are very played very broadly. And a bit with a contemporary child playing the Fiddler never pays off. Still the evacuation scene is devastating. It may be too heavy handed for some but it made me appreciate the piece in a new light.
Updated On: 9/18/22 at 07:18 AM
