![Kristin Gornstein as Shtumer Alef, Kelly Guerra as Pasekh Alef and Kate Maroney as Komets Alef — Photo Credit Brian Hatton [0173].jpg](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c26374a372b968c8169c9b7/25aee34a-25b5-4b6c-bf9e-9efaed77aa6b/Kristin+Gornstein+as+Shtumer+Alef%2C+Kelly+Guerra+as+Pasekh+Alef+and+Kate+Maroney+as+Komets+Alef+%E2%80%94+Photo+Credit+Brian+Hatton+%5B0173%5D.jpg)
the great dictionary of the yiddish language
music by alex weiser
libretto by ben kaplan
The Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language tells the tragi-comic story of Yiddish linguist Yudel Mark’s unfinished effort to create the first comprehensive Yiddish dictionary. The Great Dictionary invites audiences to contemplate the surprisingly grand ambition of Yiddish culture after its decimation during the Holocaust and to consider the power of language to transform and shape us.
With a runtime of 60 minutes, the concert is performed by an ensemble of five singers, combining characters based on historical figures with those inspired by Jewish mystical themes; the character of Yudel Mark is haunted by three ‘alefs,’ divine emanations of the Yiddish language—played by three mezzo-sopranos—who compel him to breathe new life into Yiddish as he struggles to complete the dictionary.
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“THE GREAT DICTIONARY OF THE YIDDISH LANGUAGE”
Full video from September 18, 2025 world premiere at YIVO: World Premiere
Born and raised in New York City, ALEX WEISER creates acutely cosmopolitan music combining a deeply felt historical perspective with a vibrant forward-looking creativity hailed as “personal, expressive, and bold” (I Care If You Listen). Weiser’s debut album and all the days were purple, was named a 2020 Pulitzer Prize Finalist and cited as “a meditative and deeply spiritual work whose unexpected musical language is arresting and directly emotional.” Released by Cantaloupe Music in April 2019, the album includes songs in Yiddish and English.
Active as an opera composer, Weiser is currently working on two operas. Tevye’s Daughters, written with librettist Stephanie Fleischmann, is a commission from American Lyric Theater. Based on Sholem Aleichem’s iconic Yiddish stories, it explores the tragic death of Tevye’s lesser-known daughter, Shprintse. The opera also traces the lasting impact of Shprintse’s fate on her sisters who are now elderly and living in New York. The Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language with librettist Ben Kaplan is set in 1950s post-war New York and follows linguist Yudel Mark as he sets out to write the world’s first fully comprehensive Yiddish dictionary — an effort of linguistic preservation, and a memorial to the dead.
Born in Brooklyn, NY, librettist BEN KAPLAN studied literature and theater at Williams College. He currently serves as Director of Education at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, where he directs programs that teach Jewish history and culture to a broad and diverse audience. These programs include the Uriel Weinreich Summer Program in Yiddish Language, Literature, and Culture and the YIVO-Bard Winter Program on Ashkenazi Civilization. As a librettist, he creates historically informed dramatic works that chronicle turning points in history lost to contemporary cultural discourse.
REBECCA MILLER KRATZER is a New York-based theatre and opera director. She currently serves as Assistant Director at Little Shop of Horrors at the Westside Theatre and Resident Stage Director with The Opera Next Door. Previous work includes: Don Giovanni, Quasi Fan Tutte, The Opera Next Door; La Carmencita, Lincoln Center; In Real Life, Mostly Modern Festival; La traviata, City Lyric Opera; Enemies: A Love Story, Rider University; Antigone, Phoebus und Pan, Longy School of Music; Don Quichotte, Opera Saratoga; The Trojan Women, Columbia University; Cendrillon, Alcina, Second Nature, Opera del West; Don Giovanni, Fidelio, La Cenerentola, NEMPAC Opera; assistant director for Grounded, Washington National Opera; Man of La Mancha, Opera Saratoga; rehearsal observer for New Dark Age, Royal Opera House. Rebecca served as adjunct faculty/guest director at Montclair State University in the Musical Theatre and Dance Department and as co-adjunct/guest director at Rutgers University. She holds a BA in Theater Arts from Brandeis University and an MFA in Directing from Columbia University. Winner of the 2025 Opera America Robert L.B. Tobin Director-Designer Prize, Rebecca is a proud AGMA Member and SDC Associate Member.
DAVID BLOOM is a conductor equally at home in orchestral repertoire, opera, and new music, noted for his “dazzling precision and grace” (San Francisco Chronicle), “intelligence, elegance, and passion” (Opera News), “ferocious and focused” (The New York Times) performances, and “breathtaking and inspired programming” (Shepherd Express). He dedicates his work to collaborating with artists and communities to inspire creativity, empathy, and joy. Bloom has guest conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Washington National Opera, American Composers Orchestra, Opera Omaha, Central City Opera, Tri-Cities Opera, Bang on a Can All-Stars, The Crossing, Ensemble Connect, and Choir of Trinity Wall Street, and worked with soloists David Byrne, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Helga Davis, Nathalie Joachim, Kronos Quartet, Dawn Upshaw, and many more. He has performed in such venues as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Kennedy Center, and Park Avenue Armory. Since 2022, he has been Artistic Director of Queer Urban Orchestra. He is Principal Conductor of the New York University Orchestra, where he also teaches conducting. As a cover conductor for the New York Philharmonic, he has worked with such conductors as Susanna Mälkki, Santtu-Matias Rouvali, and Dalia Stasevska and soloists Brandford Marsalis, Anthony McGill, and Golda Schultz. He is Co-Artistic Director of Contemporaneous, which he co-founded with composer Dylan Mattingly in 2010, and is also Principal Conductor of Present Music.
Alex Weiser
Composer
Ben Kaplan
Librettist
Rebecca Miller Kratzer
Stage Director
David Bloom
Conductor
designerS
MICHAEL BENNETT LEWIS is a scenic designer for theater and opera. He earned his Master of Fine Arts from the Department of Design for Stage and Film at New York University/Tisch School of the Arts. Recent set design includes Kin at the Chain Theatre in Manhattan, Orpheus in the Underworld at Manhattan School of Music, Dialogues des Carmelites and Florencia en el Amazonas at Eastman Opera Theatre, and a double bill of Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi at NYU/Steinhardt. Broadway credits include associate set design for English (design by Marsha Ginsberg/direction by Knud Adams) and Days of Wine and Roses (design by Lizzie Clachan/direction by Michael Greif).
Born in Florence, Italy, and NYC based, CAMILLA TASSI has worked as a projection designer on over 100 productions, including SEACHANGE (Miami City Ballet), Falling Out of Time (Carnegie Hall), SANDRA (TheaterWorks Hartford), Elijah Reimagined (Kennedy Center), American Railroad (Rhiannon Giddens & Silkroad Ensemble Tour), King Arthur (Lincoln Center, Juilliard415), Adoration (Beth Morrison Projects & LA Opera), Iphigenie en Tauride (Boston Baroque), L’Orfeo (Cal Performances & UMS Michigan), Fires in the Mirror (Baltimore Center Stage), Malhaar (Walt Disney Concert Hall, LA Master Chorale), Conspirare Christmas (Long Center), Mozart’s Magic Flute (Berlin Opera Academy), Handel’s Alcina (Yale Opera), The Extinctionist (Heartbeat Opera), Tesori’s Fun Home (Yale School of Drama), as well as for recitals, chamber music, and theater at Curtis, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, IU Opera, Repertorio Español, PROTOTYPE Festival, Mass MoCA, and others.
STACEY BOGGS is a New York-based award-winning lighting designer whose works include La Calisto (Montclair University), La Carmencita (Lincoln Center), 9 to 5 (Ohio Northern University), RENT! (La Guardia High School), Verses at Work (651 Arts), Make a Joyful Noize (Soul Science Lab), Fandango for Butterflies (and Coyotes) co-design with Lucrecia Briceno (La Jolla Playhouse), Afrocosmicmelatopia (Afrofuturism Festival), Everything for Dawn (Experiments in Opera), Marguerite (APAC), The In[heir]itance Project (14th Street Y), Amp (Winner NYIT Best Lighting Design, 2018), NYCCT’s Interstellar Cinderella, Love that Dog, and Please Bring Balloons, Theatre Three’s Murder on the Orient Express, TickTick…Boom!, Something Rotten, Guys and Dolls, The Miracle Worker (Winner BroadwayWorld’s Long Island Award Best Lighting Design, 2019), The Diary of Anne Frank, Oklahoma! (Fairleigh Dickinson University), Katzelmacher (Minor Latham Playhouse), Waterwell’s Marco Millions (based on lies), The|King|Operetta, #9, and I Love a Piano (national tour). She graduated from the University of Evansville with a BS in Theater and Technology and NYU Graduate Design Program with an MFA in Lighting Design. Stacey is a proud member of USA 829.
Born and raised in Wilmington, Delaware, MATSY STINSON moved to New York City in 2010 to pursue a degree in theatre arts. While in school, she focused on costume design and sewing/tailoring, but also studied stagecraft, makeup artistry, scenic design, prop fabrication, fine art, and art history. She now lives in NYC’s East Village and works primarily as a costume designer and fashion stylist. Additionally, she has served as a production designer, created scenery and props, and has dabbled in installation art. In every medium, Matsy strives to collaborate creatively, listen to the wisdom of those around her, and tell meaningful stories using color, texture and (most of the time!) fabric.
Michael Bennet Lewis
Scenic Design
Camilla Tassi
Projection Design
Stacey Boggs
Lighting Design
Matsy Stinson
Costume Design
CAST
JASON WEISINGER is a singer, music director/producer, composer/orchestrator, performer, and educator based in Long Island City, NY. He has sung with many esteemed ensembles including the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, American Classical Orchestra, The Crossing, Choir of Trinity Wall Street, the Mark Morris Dance Group, The Boston POPS, & the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra. His voice appears on Last Week Tonight’s EMMY-nominated song Eat Shit Bob: The Musical and on The Crossing’s GRAMMY-nominated albums from 2019 and 2022. As “...an Olympian of a music director...” (The New York Times), Jason specializes in developing new musicals. Recent credits include Associate Music Director for Ars Nova’s production of Travels by James Harrison Monaco, Music Assistant for Bespoke Theatrical’s workshop of Memoirs of Amorous Gentlemen by Duncan Sheik and Leah Nanako Winkler, and Music Assistant for Hermés’ immersive musical Love Around the Block by Dave Malloy and Isaac Oliver. Jason also serves as composer/orchestrator/arranger at Park Avenue Synagogue, writing for cantor Azi Schwartz.
Baritone GIDEON DABI continues to receive great acclaim, delivering “powerfully felt, beautifully performed and articulated” performances across a wide array of genres and styles. His “earnest interpretations” have thrilled audiences throughout the United States, to Israel, Italy, and back. In recent seasons, Gideon has sung Dandini in La Cenerentola with Opera Columbus as well as the studio recording of Gerald Cohen’s Steal a Pencil For Me, which he premiered with Opera Colorado. He was a featured singer on Full Frontal with Samantha Bee and has done multiple engagements with American Opera Projects. He has also performed with Chautauqua Opera, American Lyric Theater, Dallas Opera, Sarasota Opera, Charlottesville Opera, Tulsa Opera, Merola Opera Company, and Annapolis Opera.
Praised as “a fine actress with a deep, spacious sound” (Parterre), American mezzo-soprano KRISTIN GORNSTEIN brings her “rich-voiced mezzo-soprano” and “lines of an uncannily silky legato” (The New York Times) to her work, ranging from the traditional to the edgy and imaginative. She was lauded for her recent portrayal of Piramo in Johan Hasse’s baroque gem Piramo e Tisbe with The Little Opera Theatre of New York, with Opera News calling her performance, “...masterful. She sang the difficult role with a truly flawless lyric mezzo.” She enjoyed her Lincoln Center debut in the role of Wang Sheng in the China Now Music Festival’s production of Painted Skin by Hao Weiya. Recent performances include the title role in Dido and Aeneas with Opera Fort Collins and Antonio in Antonio e Cleopatra with the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado.
Mezzo-soprano KATE MARONEY is in demand as a versatile concert soloist in repertoire from Bach to the 21st-century. Kate has appeared with the Metropolitan Opera, Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival, Bangor Symphony Orchestra, Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra, Blue Hill Bach, Indianapolis Symphonic Choir, New York City Ballet, Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Seraphic Fire, Berkshire Choral Festival, Voices of Ascension, TENET Vocal Artists, Ekmeles, Carmel Bach Festival, Opera Grand Rapids, Beth Morrison Projects, Bard SummerScape, Trinity Wall Street, LA Opera, Lincoln Center Festival, Oregon Bach Festival, Musica Sacra, Bach Collegium San Diego, Princeton Pro Musica, Bach Vespers Holy Trinity, Mark Morris Dance Group, Yale Choral Artists, American Opera Projects, The Crossing, and Clarion. Kate has premiered works and collaborated closely with the Philip Glass Ensemble (world tour from 2012-2015 in Einstein on the Beach) and has collaborated with many composers including David Lang, Michael Gordon, Martin Bresnick, Alex Weiser, Julia Wolfe, Missy Mazzoli, Matthew Ricketts, Hannah Lash, Nina Young, Dominick Argento, Christopher Cerrone, and Ted Hearne. She is featured on Grammy-nominated recordings with Albany, Naxos, and New Amsterdam Records, and is part of the Grammy-winning recording of Ethel Smyth’s “The Prison” (Chandos 2020.) She is a soloist on recordings with Clarion (Maxamillian Steinberg’s Passion Week), Seraphic Fire’s recording of Hildegard von Bingen’s Ordo Virtutum, and a vocal quartet recording with David Lang of the little match girl passion, which was released on Cantaloupe Music. She holds a DMA from Eastman, degrees from SUNY Purchase and Yale, and teaches voice at Mannes and Yale. While not singing or teaching her heart out, Kate enjoys studying French and embarking on urban hikes around her beloved Brooklyn, where she resides with musician-husband, Red Wierenga, and their son, Ossian.
Peruvian-American mezzo-soprano KELLY GUERRA is widely recognized for her distinctive voice, described as “rich and sultry, radiating warmth and power, with a smoky timbre” (Isthmus News, 2025). Guerra is known for bringing passion and nuance to her performances. Her 2024-25 season featured a diverse array of roles. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut as one of the Niñas in Golijov’s flamenco opera Ainadamar, directed and choreographed by Deborah Colker, Jo March in Mark Adamo’s Little Women with Fort Worth Opera, the alto soloist in Handel’s Messiah with the Glacier Symphony, Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Opera Las Vegas, Isabella in L’Italiana in Algeri with Anchorage Opera and Opera in the Heights, María in María de Buenos Aires with Madison Opera, and Mrs. Fox in Fantastic Mr. Fox with Opera Omaha. Guerra’s versatility extends to many styles and eras of vocal music, from Mozart to Sondheim to Héctor Lavoe. As a first generation American and native of Southern California, Guerra’s work focuses on promoting Spanish-language and contemporary repertoire, with a commitment to making the concert hall more inclusive.
Jason Weisinger
Yudel Mark
Gideon Dabi
Max Weinreich
Kristin Gornstein
Shtumer Alef
Kate Maroney
Komets Alef
Kelly Guerra
Pasekh Alef
partners
BANG ON A CAN’S LONG PLAY FESTIVAL
Bang on a Can presents the 3rd annual Long Play, a three-day destination music festival, Friday, May 3 through Sunday, May 5, 2024! Featuring 50+ concerts (including Soundwalk Collective with Patti Smith, Jeff Mills's Tomorrow Comes the Harvest, Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians, Deerhoof, BlankFor.ms + Jason Moran, Ligeti Quartet, Raw Poetic and Damu the Fudgemunk, Bang on a Can All-Stars performing Ryuichi Sakamoto's 1996, ), Long Play also showcases a dense network of inventive music venues in Brooklyn – with performances at BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music), Roulette, Public Records, BRIC, Irondale Center for the Arts, The Center for Fiction, plus outdoor events and more.
the neighborhood: an urban center for jewish life
The Neighborhood: An Urban Center for Jewish Life is an inclusive and welcoming community. We aim to nurture Brooklyn’s role as a hub for Jewish art and culture, locally and from around the world. We produce programs that raise up underrepresented perspectives, and welcome the thousands of Brooklynites that have not yet found their Jewish home. We are creating a welcoming space that reflects the spirit of Brooklyn -- future-thinking and deeply historical, iconoclastic, and sacred.
PRESS
“...both meaningful and funny.” — Rob Tannenbaum, The New York Times
“The score, free of Klezmer clichés, features tuneful, Sondheim-esque arias interspersed with striking, harmonically pungent sections for the Alefs... It’s a taut, impactful chamber opera and I hope it’s performed again.” — Vivien Schweitzer, former New York Times music critic, Vivien’s Substack
“...an unlikely but passionate opera.” — Joanne Palmer, The Jewish Standard
“No lover of Yiddish should miss this one-of-a-kind theatrical experience” — Jennifer Stern, The Forward
“...an ambitious, larger-than-life spectacle befitting the dazzling ambitions of the creators of the Yiddish dictionary…Composer Alex Weiser and librettist Ben Kaplan endow enchantment and glamor… In recreating the Yiddishist polemics on stage, Kaplan and Weiser excel at capturing the paradoxical nature of postwar Yiddishism, which was simultaneously petty and visionary, cosmopolitan and parochial, messianic, but also highly pragmatic, lachrymose and uplifting, tragic and comic, and everything in between.” — Ofer Dynes, In Geveb
Press Links
Vivien’s Substack | Words, Visions and Tunes
The New York Times | Ardent Bickering That Defined A Yiddish Dictionary
Jewish Standard | Words and music about words
JTA/NY Jewish Week | At YIVO, an unfinished Yiddish dictionary gets the last word — as opera
Forward | An unprecedented, and unfinished, work of Yiddish scholarship is now an opera
Congress for Jewish Culture | Remembering Yudel Mark
Forward | Opera about a unique Yiddish dictionary to have its world premiere
Opera Wire | The Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language Set for World Premiere at NYC’s YIVO Institute
In Geveb | In The Great Dictionary of Yiddish Language, the dictionary dazzles
Pakn-treger | “Every Word Deserves to Be Remembered": How an Unfinished Dictionary Inspired an Opera
The Shmooze | The Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language
Forward | Opera brings to life the poignant fate of the Great Yiddish Dictionary
פֿאָרװערטס | אָפּערע אַנטפּלעקט די ווייניק־באַקאַנטע געשיכטע פֿון גרויסן ייִדישן ווערטערבוך (Yiddish)
Information
Duration 60' / no intermission
Commission The Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language is currently in development with American Opera Projects (AOP), in collboration with The Neighborhood: An Urban Center for Jewish Youth. A December 2022 developmental workshop was supported by the 14th Street Y and LABA: A Laboratory for Jewish Culture, with additional support from Asylum Arts. Excerpts of the opera have also been performed live on the radio at Toronto 96.3FM as part of Jewish Music Week in June 2023.
Premiere September 18, 2025 at YIVO
Roles 5 singers (3 mezzo-sopranos, 1 tenor,1 baritone)
Instrumentation clarinet, string quintet, piano
Publisher Bang on a Can’s Long Play; The Neighborhood: An Urban Center for Jewish Life. Staged performances of this work require licensing through the creators.