Reviewed Elsewhere: Joseph Rumshinsky, Di goldene kale.

Joseph Rumshinsky. Di goldene kale, edited by Michael Ochs, 2 vols. Middleton, WI: A-R Editions, 2017. lix + 671 pp. $340 (paperback), ISBN 978-0-89579-852-7, 978-0-89579-853-4.

Composed by Joseph Rumshinsky (1881–1956), one of the mighty four of Second Avenue during the so-called second golden age of Yiddish theater, Di goldene kale premiered at Kessler's Second Avenue Theater in February 1923. After an eighteen-week run, it toured to many American cities and traveled to Europe and South America until 1948, when it dropped out of the repertoire, in parallel with the decline of the Yiddish stage. The success it celebrated during its twenty-five years onstage is reflective of its composer's stardom. Of the mighty four, a group of Yiddish theater composers, Rumshinsky was undoubtedly the one who ruled Yiddish Broadway in the early twentieth century. A prolific composer, his creative output counts more than 150 stage works, as well as hundreds of songs, sacred choral music, music for two movies, and an opera in Hebrew. Today, Di goldene kale might be his best-remembered work, not the least because of its successful revival runs, beginning in 2014. ...

Di goldene kale brings up many social themes relevant to an early twentieth-century audience: the Russian Revolution, poverty, families separated by an ocean, pain leaving loved ones behind, husbands abandoning wives to have a fresh start, and the universal theme of love. ...

this milestone of Yiddish operetta ... relies on four primary manuscripts: a short score and instrumental parts, both from the Murray Rumshinsky Collection at UCLA, and a typescript libretto and lyrics, both held at the YIVO Archives in New York. Other consulted sources include over a dozen recordings, published sheet music, and a radio script from 1923, as well as a short score, instrumental parts, a piano-vocal score, and a libretto—all in manuscript—from YIVO, Harvard University, and the Library of Congress.

The two-volume edition comprises the full score, lyrics, and libretto in transliterated Yiddish, together with an English translation. The second volume contains the critical report and bibliography, as well as text and pronunciation notes. The first volume is prefaced by a comprehensive narrative titled "A Yiddish Operetta Tailored to Its Audience" ...

While Ochs's background in librarianship and music publishing has uniquely qualified him to tackle the Rumshinsky project, there is a lack of nuance with regard to the introductory narrative, particularly with regard to historical details, facts, and terminology. ...

These minor issues should not, however, diminish the editor's achievement to have initiated and published the first critical edition of a complete Yiddish American musical stage work. A great deal of care and thought has gone into the preparation of the score, and the presentation is of a very high standard. Given the overall quality of the edition, the impressive production standards, and the fact that this is the one and only full score of Di goldene kale, the asking price represents excellent value. Indeed, Di goldene kale is a noteworthy addition to any library of an institution that offers Jewish studies and Yiddish studies programs, as well as musicology and American studies. It also serves well as a performance edition and thus hopefully finds itself in the music theater world, where it rightfully belongs. Di goldene kale's universal social topics have never been timelier, its hopefulness never been more needed.

Tina Frühauf. American Music 36, 4 (2018), 527–530.