Lyric Opera 2022-2023 Issue 3- Fiddler #2

35 | Lyric Opera of Chicago died, that they never got to America, that [Tevye and Golde] never saw them again. LYRIC: DO YOU THINK THE STAKES OF THE DAUGHTERS’ RELATIONSHIPS IN FIDDLER FEEL THE SAME FOR MODERN AUDIENCES? WHEN THE MUSICAL FIRST OPENED,MARRYING OUTSIDE ONE’S RELIGION OR RACE OR INSIDE ONE’S GENDER WERE MUCH LESS ACCEPTED THAN THEY ARE NOW. NOW ALL THOSE THINGS ARE BARELY DEBATED. BK: You seem to have a very utopian, rose-colored vision of gay marriage. It’s certainly approved by the people we know, but it’s not approved by everybody. You don’t see rainbow flags in small German villages glorifying gay marriage. I think interracial marriage is still, in lots of communities, a huge, huge problem. So I would actually disagree with you. The piece becomes, as the years go on, even more pointed and contemporary. The idea of parents wanting their children to do certain things is unfortunately like it’s been for thousands of years. I don’t think it’s changed at all. LYRIC: DO YOU THINK THAT’S WHY THE SHOW IS SO WIDELY LOVED AND PERFORMED? THAT IT COULD REALLY BE ABOUT ANY COMMUNITY OF PEOPLE, NOT SPECIFICALLY EARLY 20TH-CENTURY EUROPEAN JEWS? BK: Universality comes from specificity. If something’s universal, it’s because it’s specific. I don’t know howmuch Japanese audiences know about Judaism, but they certainly relate to the story of this father and his five daughters. Can you maintain tradition and change? Is it possible to maintain one foot in tradition and one foot in the future? LYRIC: IS PART OF YOUR MESSAGE WITH THIS PRODUCTION THAT FIDDLER ON THE ROOF ,THE SHOW,MUST ALSO CONFRONT THE TENSION BETWEEN THE TRADITIONAL PRESENTATION OF THE BELOVED MUSICAL AND ITS CONTINUED RELEVANCE TO A CHANGING WORLD? BK: Absolutely. Sometimes we forget that. People think, “Oh, it’s such a lovely play and musical. I love the songs.” Everyone knows what’s going to happen, and you think, “This is harmless, this is kitschy.” The piece itself is set in Ukraine. This is where the Russian government, for a time, allowed Jews to settle and live and work without being able to own the land. But this is all set in what are now battlefields. This area for hundreds of years has been fought over, abused, trampled through. There are many, many ghosts here. When you see the photos of people with very similar-looking wagons to Tevye’s and Golde’s at the end hauling their possessions—when you stand in the Berlin railway station and you see the trains coming in from Ukraine daily, from Budapest and Warsaw, with mothers and children with tiny amounts of luggage, you can’t help but think Fiddler on the Roof is the show for this moment. How much more contemporary can you get? Fiddler on the Roof (Komische Oper Berlin) Iko Freese/Komische Oper Berlin