Yiddish "Fiddler" Cast Album Thoughts

[LuminousBeing]

Posted: 8/9/19 at 9:43am

The digital album of "Fidler Afn Dakh" dropped today! I can't wait to listen to it at work. What are your thoughts on it?

Updated On: 8/9/19 at 09:43 AM

[uncageg]

Posted: 8/9/19 at 10:42am

Thanks for the post. Am listening to it now. The sound quality is wonderful. Performances are also. 

Nice that they have included scene change music and even curtain call music. There are a lot of extra tracks In English. Wondering if these are from past productions or newly recorded? 

[dramamama611]

Posted: 8/9/19 at 1:34pm

Wow, thats expensive! 23.99 on Amazon!

[MichelleCraig]

Posted: 8/9/19 at 1:42pm

Thanks for posting! I'm listening now...

For those of us completely familiar with the score, listening to it in Yiddish is no problem at all. I love that so much additional music is included, too. Physically, this will be a 2 CD release which is why the price is higher than most cast recordings on Amazon.

What a beautifully performed and engineered recording!

 

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 8/9/19 at 1:43pm

dramamama611 said: "Wow, thats expensive! 23.99 on Amazon!"

Someone has to pay for all those celebrity bonus tracks.

[Miles2Go2]

Posted: 8/9/19 at 1:56pm

dramamama611 said: "Wow, thats expensive! 23.99 on Amazon!"

Is that for the digital version? It won’t show me digital prices on the amazon app on my iPhone. In 2 disc physical format, it’s $25.64 which seems reasonable for 2 CD Broadway cast recordings. 

Luckily, it’s already on Apple Music. Listening now and it’s bringing back joyous memories of seeing this in February. 

[Miles2Go2]

Posted: 8/9/19 at 2:06pm

CATSNYrevival said: "dramamama611 said: "Wow, thats expensive! 23.99 on Amazon!"

Someone has to pay for all those celebrity bonus tracks."

Wow. Just noticed that Disc 2 is all “celebrity” bonus tracks. I’m most surprised that Tom Wopat is featured on two tracks especially after he was fired from a production a couple years ago for sexually inappropriate behavior.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 8/9/19 at 2:37pm

I have agreed to play Tevye next year and am hoping this recording will help me prepare for the role.

[Valentina3]

Posted: 8/9/19 at 3:07pm

Dollypop said: "I have agreed to play Tevye next year and am hoping this recording will help me prepare for the role."

I can never tell whether you're joking or not.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 8/9/19 at 3:17pm

I'm not joking. A priest friend is preparing a program he's calling :The Theology of FIDDLER ON THE ROOF" and I will be playing Tevye to sing the songs and act out the scenes he's discussing. I do hope he cuts it down a bit because right now it's a lengthy program.

[LuminousBeing]

Posted: 8/9/19 at 6:30pm

uncageg said: Nice that they have included scene change music and even curtain call music. There are a lot of extra tracks In English. Wondering if these are from past productions or newly recorded?"

These are new recordings of cut songs that were never put into the show. "Dear Sweet Sewing Machine" was previously recorded by Adam Kantor and Alexandra Silber as a bonus track for the 2016 album (with Danny Burstein). The rest of the songs, I believe, have never been professionally recorded. I'm holding off on listening to them for a while - I want to save them for a day when I need a pick-me-up.

On a separate topic, if anyone interested in "Fiddler" would like to know more about how the original production was conceived, created, and produced, I highly recommend the book Tradition! by Barbara Isenberg. I'm in the middle of it now, and it contains some absolutely fascinating tidbits, like the story of Mostel's hiring, Hal Prince's role in the original production, and why it was almost a big fat flop.

https://www.amazon.com/Tradition-Improbable-Ultimately-Broadway-Hollywood/dp/1250075378/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Tradition%21+Isenberg&qid=1565389794&s=gateway&sr=8-1

(Not an affiliate link, just posted for your convenience)

Updated On: 8/9/19 at 06:30 PM

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 8/9/19 at 7:04pm

I kind of love this album and I wasn’t sure I would. It makes me want to seek out a cast recording of Evita in Spanish or Les Miserables in French.

[uncageg]

Posted: 8/9/19 at 7:09pm

LuminousBeing said: "uncageg said:Nice that they have included scene change music and even curtain call music. There are a lot of extra tracks In English. Wondering if these are from past productions or newly recorded?"

These are new recordings of cut songs that were never put into the show. "Dear Sweet Sewing Machine" was previously recorded by Adam Kantor and Alexandra Silber as a bonus track for the 2016 album (with Danny Burstein). The rest of the songs, I believe, have never been professionally recorded. I'm holding off on listening to them for a while - I want to save them for a day when I need a pick-me-up.

On a separate topic, if anyone interested in "Fiddler" would like to know more about how the original production was conceived, created, and produced, I highly recommend the bookTradition!by Barbara Isenberg. I'm in the middle of it now, and it contains some absolutely fascinating tidbits, like the story of Mostel's hiring, Hal Prince's role in the original production, and why it was almost a big fat flop.

https://www.amazon.com/Tradition-Improbable-Ultimately-Broadway-Hollywood/dp/1250075378/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Tradition%21+Isenberg&qid=1565389794&s=gateway&sr=8-1

(Not an affiliate link, just posted for your convenience)"

 

Thanks for posting that. I actually found that out earlier but was too lazy to post it!!

 

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 8/9/19 at 7:40pm

There's also a deluxe edition of the original Broadway cast recording that includes bonus tracks of Sheldon Harnick describing the creation of the show as well as singing two cut songs one also on this album, "When Messiah Comes" and another that isn't featured on this album called "How Much Richer Could One Man Be?" It seems like they could have created a whole separate musical with all the songs that ended up getting cut from this show.

[msmp]

Posted: 8/9/19 at 9:23pm

They really did a fantastic job on this album. Definitely going to be one of my most-frequent plays. I love that they included Yente's two monologues, because I will never not love the way Jackie Hoffman delivered them.

[MichelleCraig]

Posted: 8/9/19 at 10:43pm

CATSNYrevival wrote:  I kind of love this album and I wasn’t sure I would. It makes me want to seek out a cast recording of Evita in Spanish or Les Miserables in French.

There are recordings of both shows in the languages you’re interested in. 

[RWPrincess]

Posted: 8/9/19 at 11:46pm

CATSNYrevival said: "I kind of love this album and I wasn’t sure I would. It makes me want to seek out a cast recording of Evita in Spanish or Les Miserables in French."

The cast recording from the most recent Evita revival has Don’t Cry for Me Argentina in Spanish 

[LuminousBeing]

Posted: 8/10/19 at 12:21am

Thanks to you all for your thoughts so far! Since I started this thread, I figured I should put my two cents in.

I'm an Ashkenazi Jewish woman. My great-great grandfather came to the US through Ellis Island after a pogrom. He and his family spoke Yiddish at home only until they became sufficiently fluent in English. The culture at the time for many immigrants was to "leave the old country in the old country." As a result, the language was not passed down to my mother or me. Seeing this production made me feel like I had a window into my family history, and made me feel more connected to my Jewish heritage than any other single experience, including teaching at a Hebrew school.

This recording immediately brought me back to the magic of seeing the show live. It is gloriously produced, the balance is perfect, and the performers masterfully convey self-deprecating humor, deep piety, toil, and joy that is all just so "Jewish" in feel. Even though "Fiddler" has never been one of my favorite shows to listen to in the past, this will definitely be one of my most-played albums. I'm beyond grateful that this production was not only created, transferred to off-Broadway, and recorded, but that it received such a professional treatment. I felt like it was worth the price tag halfway through the first track.