“...both meaningful and funny.” — Rob Tannenbaum, The New York Times
“The score, free of Klezmer clichés, features tuneful, Sondheim-esque arias interspersed with striking, harmonically pungent sections for the Alefs... It’s a taut, impactful chamber opera and I hope it’s performed again.” — Vivien Schweitzer, Vivien’s Substack
“...an unlikely but passionate opera.” — Joanne Palmer, The Jewish Standard
“No lover of Yiddish should miss this one-of-a-kind theatrical experience” — Jennifer Stern, The Forward
“...an ambitious, larger-than-life spectacle befitting the dazzling ambitions of the creators of the Yiddish dictionary... Composer Alex Weiser and librettist Ben Kaplan endow enchantment and glamor… In recreating the Yiddishist polemics on stage, Kaplan and Weiser excel at capturing the paradoxical nature of postwar Yiddishism, which was simultaneously petty and visionary, cosmopolitan and parochial, messianic, but also highly pragmatic, lachrymose and uplifting, tragic and comic, and everything in between.” — Ofer Dynes, In Geveb
The Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language — a chamber opera with a libretto by Ben Kaplan — is based on the true story of Yiddish linguist Yudel Mark, who in 1950s post-war New York City sets out to write the world’s first fully comprehensive Yiddish dictionary — an effort of linguistic preservation, and a memorial to the dead. In the opera, Mark clashes with Max Weinreich — the world’s leading Yiddish authority and the director of the YIVO institute under whose auspices Mark is working —over Mark’s hope to make the dictionary over a dozen volumes long and to include not just contemporary words and rare words of the past, but new words of Mark’s invention for an aspirational future. But Mark’s inspiration flows from a dark secret: he is haunted by the three Alefs—Komets, Pasekh, and Shtumer—three divine emanations of the Yiddish language who compel him to breathe new life into Yiddish.
After the death of Weinreich, Mark mourns the plight of Yiddish culture in America and decides that the future of Yiddish and of his dictionary is in Israel. After moving to Jerusalem, Mark finds himself haunted by the ghost of Weinreich. The two weep over the status of Yiddish, and Mark dies leaving his dictionary incomplete past the letter alef. The opera invites audiences to consider the extent to which a language and a culture can be saved, the nature of grief, and the power of language itself to transform and shape us into who we are.
Press
Vivien’s Substack | Words, Visions and Tunes
The New York Times | Ardent Bickering That Defined A Yiddish Dictionary
Jewish Standard | Words and music about words
JTA/NY Jewish Week | At YIVO, an unfinished Yiddish dictionary gets the last word — as opera
Forward | An unprecedented, and unfinished, work of Yiddish scholarship is now an opera
Congress for Jewish Culture | Remembering Yudel Mark
Forward | Opera about a unique Yiddish dictionary to have its world premiere
Opera Wire | The Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language Set for World Premiere at NYC’s YIVO
In Geveb | In The Great Dictionary of Yiddish Language, the dictionary dazzles
Pakn-treger | “Every Word Deserves to Be Remembered": How an Unfinished Dictionary Inspired an Opera
The Shmooze | The Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language
Forward | Opera brings to life the poignant fate of the Great Yiddish Dictionary
Tablet Magazine | Encyclopedia Knowledge (mention)
