A Tangled Legacy: 1,000 years of French Jewry in words and music

Major concert comes to Temple Emanu-El

What do these well-known people from history have in common?

Sarah Bernhardt, Leon Blum, Emile Durkheim, Claude Levy-Strauss, André Maurois, Marcel Marceau, Pierre Mendes, Marcel Proust, James Mayer de Rothschild, and Rabbi Shlomo Itzhaki (better known as Rashi).

They are French Jews, and each one of them contributed significantly to French life and culture in their times.

Here is another interesting list of names. What do they have in common?

Charles-Valentin  Alkan, Fromental Halévy, Jacques Offenbach, Giacomo Meyerbeer, Darius Milhaud, Samuel Naumbourg, Kurt Weill.

They are composers and Jews in France whose careers, at crucial times during their lives, were centered in Paris, and who composed music – each one of them – that contributed to French life and culture in their times and to Western musical culture to this day.  

The music of these Jewish composers, as well as the history of the Jews of France from the time of Rashi to today, will be featured in a major concert on May 17 at Temple Emanu-El in Providence. The 7 p.m. concert is open to the public. A Tangled Legacy: 1,000 Years of French Jewry in Words and Music features a wide range of musical genres – religious, classical, jazz, cabaret and North African – from almost all French historical eras, starting with examples from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance through the centuries to today, performed by outstanding instrumental soloists, guest vocal soloists and choir. Each era will be put in its historical and Jewish context through an original script. 

Special musical treats as well as set scenes are abundant throughout this program. For example, the program begins with a scene of men and boys huddled around a Talmud volume, chanting in the style of Rashi’s time. The next scene features a trio of young women from the teen choir Kol Kesem Hazamir, portraying Rashi’s daughters – who were said to have studied Torah – singing a traditional medieval version of Adon Olam. Next, a harpsichord and recorder accompany scenes and songs of French Renaissance Jewry. When the concert narrative reaches the French Revolution, the organ plays La Marseillaise but the choir sings the Hebrew words to Eil Adon and the audience is invited to sing, too. For the Classical, Romantic and modern eras, the music is amazingly varied and familiar:  Shabbat service melodies by Samuel Naumberg that we still sing today, Jacques Offenbach’s Can Can, Kurt Weill’s cabaret torch song Je Ne T’Aime Pas, and Darius Milhaud’s jazzy Caramel Mou. As the narrative reaches the decades of North African Jewry’s repatriation to France, the program features the instruments and toe-tapping melodies of their Shabbat service. 

The lively, varied and authentic music for this concert has been specially selected and arranged by Cantor Joseph Ness, an award-winning composer, arranger and conductor. The original, historically accurate script, written by Cantor Lynn Torgove of Hebrew College Boston and Cantor Dr. Brian J. Mayer of Temple Emanu-El, will be narrated by Dr. Bill Miles. A professor of political science at Northeastern University, Dr. Miles specializes in Jewish historical and cultural studies, including a focus on the Jews of France and francophone countries. The world-renowned pianist Judith Lynn Stillman, a major recording artist and international piano soloist, will play throughout the program.  Other guests include instrumental soloists from the Boston Symphony Orchestra, as well as mezzo-soprano Torgove, soprano Maayan Harel, tenor Cantor Michael McCloskey, tenor Mayer, and baritone Ness. The Shir Emanu-El Choir, Kol Kesem Hazamir, plus singers from the choirs of Temple Beth El, West Hartford, and the Central Congregational Church, Providence, are also on the program.

A Tangled Legacy: 1,000 Years of French Jewry in Words and Music is the final event in Arts Emanu-El’s 2014 four-part arts and culture series focused on the Jews of France. Each of these events has larger-than-expected audiences so early ticket purchase is advised. The series began with Yves Jeuland’s authoritative documentary film, “Comme un Juif en France” (Being Jewish in France), followed by a moderated discussion of the Dreyfus Affair as prompted by Robert Harris’s “An Officer and a Spy” and then by a French buffet breakfast and talk by Dean Maud Mandel of Brown University, on Jews and Muslims in France: History of a Conflict. Next season’s Arts Emanu-El events are currently slated to include a film, a solo recital, an art exhibit, plus a concert. The official Arts Emanu-El calendar and brochure with the annual program is published in September.

For tickets to A Tangled Legacy: 1,000 Years of French Jewry in Words and Music on May 17 at 7 p.m. go to TEProv.org or send a check to: Temple Emanu-El, 99 Taft Ave., Providence, R.I.  02906. Note: “Tangled Legacy Concert.”  Ticket pricing: in advance, $50, $36, $15; at the door, $55, $40, $20.  For sponsor tickets with reserved seating and parking, contact Judy Greenblatt, president, at 401-331-1616 (leave a message).

LINDA SHAMOON, is co-chair, Arts Emanu-El at Temple Emanu-El.