Fiddler on the Roof

Jerry Bock - Sheldon Harnick

Fiddler On the Roof is the greatest musical of all time.

Days meld into one as sunrise follows sunset in the Ukrainian village of Anatevka in 1905. As a Jewish community in Imperial Russia, it’s set in its ways, from what people can eat to how they sleep, and how girls are successfully married off. Tevye the Milkman cherishes his Jewish roots, despite conflicts flaring up and the sense of doom brought by the approach of the Czar’s Gendarmerie.

Fiddler’s songs are a medley of melancholy and optimism. Tevye looks at the changes taking place around him through warm-hearted humour, always hoping for the best.

History repeats itself. Who are we allowed to be, and where are we allowed to live? Who are we allowed to love?

Fiddler on the Roof, or Anatevka, is performed in German.

Sunrise, sunset…
Laiden with happiness and tears.  

Our visiting opera company this summer is Theater Hagen from the Ruhr region in Germany. The theatre is located in the midst of large cities in an area with a broad opera offering. Theater Hagen stands out from the crowd with its fresh, inventive repertoire.

Theater Hagen’s visit also brings us the new Finnish opera A Room of One’s Own and the dreamlike psychological drama Bluebeard’s Castle. See more here.

Tekijät

  • Conductor

    Steffen Müller-Gabriel

  • Director

    Thomas Weber-Schallauer

  • Assistant Director

    Tobias Kramm

  • Choreography

    Riccardo De Nigris

  • Choreography assistant

    Amber Neumann

  • Stage Design

    Alfred Peter

  • Costumes

    Yvonne Forster

  • Lighting

    Ernst Schießl

  • Dramaturgy

    Rebecca Graitl

  • Chorus master

    Wolfgang Müller-Salow

  • Theater Hagen Choir
    Theater Hagen Ballet
    Theater Hagen extras
    Hagen Philharmonic Orchestra 

  • Sung

    in German

  • Surtitles

    in Finnish and English

  • Duration

    app. 2 hours 45 minutes, one interval

a medley of melancholy and optimism

Life in early 20th century Russia was full of tension. Pogroms, violent attacks on Jews, were intensifying, and the country was on the threshold of a revolution. As Tevye says:

”A fiddler on the roof. Sounds crazy, no? But here, in our little village of Anatevka, you might say every one of us is a fiddler on the roof trying to scratch out a pleasant, simple tune without breaking his neck. It isn’t easy.”

©
Based on Sholem Aleichem stories by special permission of Arnold Perl
Book by Joseph Stein, music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick
In German by Rolf Merz and Gerhard Hagen
Produced on the New York stage by Harold Prince
Original New York stage production directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins

Subscribe to newsletter