The North American Premiere of the Opera Bas Sheve

Written by Henekh Kon in 1924, Bas Sheve is one of the only known pre-Holocaust Yiddish operas. Presumed lost, it was discovered in 2017 by Professor Diana Matut, though it was missing 16 pages of some of the essential dramatic elements of the plot.  Composer Joshua Horowitz and librettist Michael Wex completed the score. In 2019, a fully orchestrated Bas Sheve was performed at Yiddish Summer Weimer. In the summer of 2022, it made its North American debut at Toronto’s Ashkenaz Festival. This panel will discuss the performance with video examples provided.

Panel:
Eric Stein (Producer, Artistic Director of Ashkenaz Festival)
Josh Horowitz (composer and arranger)
Michael Wex (supplementary librettist)
Neal Stulberg (conductor)

This event is made possible by the Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience at The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. It is co-presented by YIVO and the Ashkenaz Foundation, with additional generous support from the David Vickter Foundation.