Di Goldene Kale, Lost Yiddish Operetta, to Get Full Staging in New York in December

Di Goldene Kale in Concert at Rutgers University (Photo: Jody Somers)

In August we attended a concert version of Di Goldene Kale (The Golden Bride), a Yiddish operetta from the glory days of the Second Avenue Yiddish theatre. (Kale is pronounced kalleh - rhymes with challah, not kale, the leafy green vegetable.)

The performance was at the Nicholas Music Center on the campus of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

The audience was enthralled by the beautiful music and funny dialogue, which was projected on a huge screen in English translation.

When the cast and orchestra took their bows, Zalmen Mlotek, the musical director of the Folksbiene - National Yiddish Theatre addressed the audience which gave them a standing ovation. He told the audience that with the theatre group taking up permanent residence at the Museum of Jewish History in downtown Manhattan, he was hoping get support to stage a full production with professionally designed sets and costumes. 

Apparently support came quickly, because Folksbiene announced last week that they are selling tickets for the full production which will be staged from December 2 through December 27 at the Edmond J. Safra Hall at Museum of Jewish Heritage, 36 Battery Place in Manhattan.  

This is a must-see production which will have you humming the melodies and laughing at the funny lines as you leave the theatre.

As Joshua Barone wrote in the New York Times,

“Di Goldene Kale” — with music by Joseph Rumshinsky, lyrics by Louis Gilrod and a book by Frieda Freiman — had its premiere in 1923 at Kessler’s Second Avenue Theater, where it filled the 2,000-seat house and ran for 18 weeks.

In the operetta, a beautiful young woman named Goldele, who was abandoned as a child, receives an unexpected inheritance and sets off on a journey to claim her estate, find her mother and offer her hand to the man who can help.

Here's a video clip of the cast rehearsing for the August performance of the concert version followed by an earlier recording of one of the main songs of the operetta, My Goldele.

Enjoy!

(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.)

(A tip of the kippah to Debbie Drachman for bringing this story to our attention.)