The Dybbuk at Merkin Concert Hall

The Aaron Copland School of Music presents The Dybbuk, an opera by Joel Mandelbaum, based on a play by Sholom Ansky

Joel Mandelbaum, Conductor - Stephan Fillare, Associate Conductor
Tuesday, October 24th, 2017 - 7:30 pm, LeFrak Concert Hall, Queens College, Flushing, NY 11367
Thursday, October 26th, 2017 - 8:00 pm, Merkin Concert Hall, 129 W 67 St., New York, NY 10023

Just two weeks after his 85th birthday, composer Joel Mandelbaum will conduct soloists and a full orchestra in excerpts from his opera The Dybbuk. The program will be presented first at Queens College, and then at Merkin Concert Hall in Manhattan.

"This represents the boldest presentation of my works in a decade and my most ambitious to attempt to conduct such a program in my entire lifetime," says Mandelbaum.

It is important that The Dybbuk is finally being performed with an orchestra led by the composer who knows it most intimately. An important work among the many in the contemporary repertory, the story of The Dybbuk, adapted from Sholom Ansky’s play, has all the elements of opera: Leah and Channon fall in love, but her greedy father rejects the penniless young man who, in turn, makes a Faustian deal with the dark spirits of the Cabbala. After the youth dies, the young woman is possessed by a dybbuk - the spirit of the dead Channon.

The story is rich with the mystical folktales of the time. A mysterious Messenger sings of how “The heart of the world can only live when it can see the crystal spring… and so begins another day of life." In a dramatic scene, the Dybbuk is exorcised by Rabbi Azrael, but Leah dies. As the opera concludes, it seems as though she is flying up to heaven with her lover. "Too late!" declares Rabbi Azrael. "Blessed be a righteous judge," says the Messenger.

The performance features Gilad Paz, Emily Misch, John Ramseyer, Amy Maude Helfer, Stephan Kirchgraber, Jin Xiang Yu, and T.J. Barnes.