Fiddler on the Roof

Fiddler on the Roofis one of those musicals that went around the world, and many of its fragments are known to the public regardless of latitude. Composer Jerry Bock, in the early 1950s, having already had three successful musicals to his credit, received an offer from the then management of the New York Imperial Theater to compose a play, after which audiences leaving the theater would hum fragments of it. In a word - the management asked the composer for a hit that would be unrivaled in relation to other Broadway theaters. Bock agreed and invited spoken author Joseph Stein and songwriter Sheldon Harnick to collaborate. The libretto is based on the stories of Szolem Aleichem, in which the main character is the milkman Tewje, his wife Golde and their three daughters - Cajtel, Hodel and Chawa, who want to marry. It all takes place in 1905 in the Russian village of Anatevka, where traditional Jewish society lives with the Russian community slowly preparing for the revolution. The element that binds all art is the concept of Tradition passing into modernity, personified in the form of Tevi, who undergoes an internal transformation before our eyes. The fiddler on the roof was first introduced in 1954, and almost immediately began to break all popularity records and it is still like this today, because - as Tewje says - each of us is just such a fiddler on the roof, trying to bring out the cheerful , sonorous tone without breaking the neck. It's not an easy art! (...) And what allows us to keep balance in this uncomfortable position for so many years? I can answer you with one word - Tradition ...

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