Fiddler!

Been feeling very much “under the weather” these last few days!  The cough that I had nearly got rid of came back with a vengeance!  Watching Fiddler on the Roof last week I found myself coughing, trying to keep it to noisier moments, and not spoil the show for others around me.  What a show!  It was great!  I had quite forgotten the story of Tevye and the life of  “Tradition” in the village of Anatevka!  Tevye , SLO-style, was a very worthy Topol sound-alike, trying to come to terms with changing times for his homeland.  I loved it!  Jackie, our choir conductor, played the part of Fruma Sarah, in the imagined dream sequence, where the dead wife of the butcher – who has asked Tevye for the hand of his eldest daughter – appears, to bring curses down on the forthcoming marriage, just Tevye’s way of persuading Golda his wife that their daughter should marry the tailor instead of the butcher.   She was very good indeed!

I think even despite my cold coming back I would still have shed tears at the eviction from Anatevka by the pre-revolutionist troops, and the disagreement between Tevye and his third daughter, who married out of her people, leading to him disowning her – yet finally showing the glimmer of hope for a reconciliation as the refugees left their village for their journeys to new lives.   An excellent performance, with good revues too, I saw later!!   I was pleased for them.  Just to give a little bit of background on the company, it was begun in 1897 by 30+ men and women from the south side of the city interested in singing light opera – hence its choice of name the Southern Light Opera.  The original performers would no doubt be thrilled to know their legacy lives on to this day, with such an enthusiastic group of members!

Talk again soon.