Program
Notes
THE ETERNAL ROAD is an
unprecedented work of art, spectacle, and pageantry in the service of a Jewish
historical and ideological message. It is unique in the history of the American
stage, not least for its scope, scale, vision, and sheer stature--and for the
profile of its creative collaborators. It has been called a pageant, an opera,
a music-drama, a staged oratorio, a biblical morality play, a biblical epic,
and a biblical extravaganza--even a "Jewish passion play." That the work still
defies generic definition after nearly seventy years is testament to its
singularity. This recording features musical highlights from the original
score, representing about one third of the entire work.
The Eternal Road was the
brainchild of the flamboyant impresario, producer, promoter, and mainstream
Zionist activist and leader, Meyer Weisgal. He conceived the project with a
threefold interrelated purpose: to respond to the state-sponsored persecution
of Jews in Germany following the National Socialist Party electoral victory in
1933 with the appointment of Hitler as chancellor; to relate through reenacted
biblical accounts the age-old historical wandering and suffering of the Jewish
people; and to suggest a messianic national hope, enshrined in the still young
Zionist enterprise, for the first realizable alternative in nearly 2,000 years
to that "eternal road" of helplessness.
As the Chicago-based executive
director of Zionist Activities for the Midwest region of the Zionist
Organization of America (ZOA), Weisgal had already experienced the value of
public spectacles for advancing the Zionist cause and fostering public
awareness of situations affecting world Jewry. He had produced two enormously
successful pageants: his All-Chicago Hanukka festival, Israel Reborn
(1932); and his lavish Romance of a People, at Jewish Day at the 1933
World's Fair, "A Century of Progress," with a cast of more than 6,000. Fresh from
that heady success--just as the implications of the Nazi victory in Germany were
registering--and convinced of the power of such theater as a vehicle for
advocacy and Jewish identity. He envisioned a production of heroic proportions,
a musical-dramatic epic that would encompass the basic narrative of the Hebrew
Bible in a single evening, implicitly suggesting Zionism's answer to the
perpetual dilemma of the Jewish people's existence. In view of the dangerous
situation for Jews in Germany even in that pre-Holocaust period, Weisgal
determined to seize the opportunity to bestir the world, through theater, with
a focus on the rich cultural heritage of the Bible as a source common to
Christians and Jews.
Insistent on a team of the
highest possible artistic profile, Weisgal turned first to one of the most
famous directors and fellow Jews on the international scene, Max Reinhardt. Aware
of Reinhardt's departure from Germany in the face of its new policies that
expelled Jews from the arts, Weisgal cabled him with the message
IF HITLER DOESN'T WANT YOU, I'LL
TAKE YOU!
He also asked Reinhardt to
identify the most appropriate playwright and composer, and they settled early
on upon New York as the most logical city for the production. Reinhardt
proposed poet and playwright Franz Werfel, a fellow German-Jewish refugee who
had already been expelled from the Prussian Academy of Art. To compose the
score, he selected Kurt Weill, then in self-imposed exile in Paris.
On some levels Werfel was an
understandable nominee, not only for his known humanistic leanings and
Expressionist poetry, but also because of his acknowledged affinity for
biblical subjects. But it was a strange choice in other respects-- especially in
light of his transparent fascination with Roman Catholicism and, in particular,
with its deeper theological mysteries. That orientation would later reverberate
in dialectics and frictions with the other principals over the issue of Jewish
particularity versus universal perspectives, and it left many aspects of the
drama, especially its conclusion, open to conflicting interpretations, for
Werfel's understanding of the Bible was governed more by Christian perceptions
than by traditional Judaic sensibilities.
Werfel conceived his play as a
modern incarnation of a passion or biblical morality play, which he titled Der
Weg der Verheissung (lit., The Road of Promise, although no translation
accurately conveys its mystical or religious connotations). That title was
obviously connected to one or more of the biblical promises stemming from the
eternal covenant with Abraham. For Werfel the universalist, even the messianic
promise could have meant assurance of ultimate redemption for all mankind;
whereas for Weisgal, and probably for Weill as well, it was unmistakably
related to the Zionist vision of national rebirth and, specifically, a return
to the land--the "Promised Land."
PREPARATIONS
Weisgal was at first concerned
about Werfel's skirting of Jewish perspectives. Moreover, reliance upon divine
salvation ran counter to the Zionist conviction that waiting and praying for
2,000 years had proved futile. Also, Werfel's messiah seemed not to be quite
the same messiah for whom observant Jews pray daily to lead the Jewish people
out of its particular exile and back to its home. And his exile appeared to be
a more universal abstract exile of the human spirit, one whose termination
could be negotiated on Christian theological terms. Indeed, there is no
specific reference anywhere in the play to the modern Zionist movement or its
activities at that time in Palestine. But when the production finally
materialized, the staging at least implied a dual conclusion--expressing in the
words of Psalm 126, mirrored in Weill's triumphant processional, the eventual
deliverance to Zion.
Weisgal cautioned Werfel that
the play must be a "Jewish play--that and nothing else," but thereafter he
became wholly preoccupied with massive fund-raising, as well as with all other
aspects of production, presentation, and promotion. The eventual Judaic
sensibility and character of The Eternal Road is owed largely to Weill's
score, with its considerable quotation of authentic and recognizable Jewish
liturgical melodies; to Reinhardt's biblically grand staging and attention to
detail; to Norman Bel Geddes's sets and costumes; to the choreography of
Benjamin Zemach, who had invented a style of ballet and modern dance based on Judaic
rituals and folklore; to Ludwig Lewisohn's English version of the play; and
even to the nature of the advance promotion, beginning with the support of
Chaim Weizmann, then president of the World Zionist Organization (WZO) and
later Israel's first president. The result was a manifestly Jewish statement
that clearly satisfied Weisgal, even if overt Zionist perspectives were left to
intuition.
The premiere was originally
anticipated for no later than October 1935, but numerous setbacks and postponements,
owing in part to the extravagant stage designs as well as to financial and
technical problems, resulted in its opening fifteen months later, at the
Manhattan Opera House (formerly the Hammerstein Opera House) on Thirty-fourth
Street. Meanwhile Lewisohn, a Zionistically as well as religiously inclined
author and critic, published his English version under the title The Eternal
Road in 1936. A stage adaptation had still to be prepared by William A.
Drake, for which some new lyrics were then added by Charles Alan, the pageant's
supervisor. Substantial portions of the original score (estimated by Weill at
about one third) were eliminated even before the premiere, and further cuts and
changes were instituted thereafter. Unfortunately, we cannot know precisely the
identity of all those cuts. The program booklet, issued after opening night,
simply states, "Program subject to change without notice."
THE STORY
The overall dramatic structure
consists of a series of flashbacks to biblical events--emanating from a continuous
all-night vigil in an unspecified synagogue, where the Jewish community has
taken refuge from a raging pogrom. As they await news of their fate--slaughter,
intervention, or expulsion--the faithful among the community engage in prayer
and biblical deliberations. Others, some there for the first time and in shock
at the sudden unprovoked attack, precipitate debates. Werfel's stage directions
specify "a timeless community," but the characters clearly represent
personalities and situations of the modern era in Europe; and they typify such
a community's array of diverse positions and orientations. The only timeless
aspect is the perpetual recurrence of persecution throughout Jewish history.
The play is divided between two
basic literary devices: prose dialogue and metered verse, a bipartite structure
mirrored in Weill's musical approach. The verse became the lyrics for his biblical
scenes; the prose remained as spoken dialogue in the synagogue scenes. The
five-tiered stage (actually five stages, a full acre in size) allowed for the
simultaneous viewing of the synagogue interior and the biblical reenactments.
Throughout the night in the
synagogue, the Rabbi recalls incidents from the Bible in an attempt to sustain
the peoples' courage, reminding them of their biblical heritage and of God's
eternal covenants with them. The stereotypical characters, given no proper
names, ponder, question, and debate the meaning of their plight. The regular
worshipers, called the Pious Men and Women, have refused to dilute their Judaism
to accommodate modernity, and they continue to rely on God's help and judgment.
The Rich Man has attended synagogue only occasionally, substituting financial
support for personal religious commitment. He has preferred to downplay his
Judaism in the eyes of the non-Jewish world from which he curries favor. The
Estranged One only now realizes that he has wrongly assumed that - total
assimilation and denial of his heritage would forever preclude persecution. His
thirteen-year- old son has been shielded from any knowledge of his Jewish
heritage or history, and by morning the young man comes to resent that imposed
ignorance as he leads the procession into exile. In the Zionist context, he
represents the newly idealistic youth who will rebuild the land.
The most troubling character is
the Adversary, who represents a type of "devil's advocacy" in his challenges,
which invite some people to reevaluate their positions. He combines cynicism, bitterness,
rebellion against God, and--most significantly--a Zionist-oriented refusal to
rely any longer on God or His promise of redemption. In that sense he may be
the most transparently Zionist element in the play, even though that role is
never specified. Other stereotypical characters include the Fanatic; the Timid
One; a young man prepared to intermarry; those who have rejected Judaism on
rational or scientific grounds; committed Zionists; non-Zionists and
anti-Zionists; and the eternal Skeptic.
THE MUSIC
The biblical scenes include
choral numbers, solo vocal arias, and ensembles, almost along operatic lines in
some cases, more like oratorio movements in others. The Rabbi's sung biblical
passages are often reminiscent of the recitative style in Baroque or classical
passions or other oratorios. But actual Hebrew biblical cantillation motifs and
archetypes of Hebrew psalmody are discernible there as well, reflecting Weill's
conscious effort to incorporate authentic traditional Judaic elements within
neo-Baroque stylization. But even that Western stylization of quasi-metrical recitative,
with sustained organ (or organlike) accompaniment, was not without precedent in
the modern Ger man Liberale Synagogue, with which Weill was fully familiar.
Louis Lewandowski (1B21--1B94), the most influential composer of the German
Synagogue, had introduced it as a synthesis of traditional Jewish and modern
Western music; and that style had become a ubiquitous feature among German
Jewry. If the Rabbi's biblical recitations evoke Bach's St. Matthew Passion--as
they do--they could just as easily derive from any number of Lewandowski
settings.
Weill determined from the outset
to utilize genuine Jewish liturgical material the overall structure, as an
integral device. He recalled some from his youth; he also asked his father to
provide him with of authentic synagogue melodies. In addition, he made a study
of the pertinent manuscript collections at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris.
Some of the oldest known tunes
of the Ashkenazi liturgical rite appear throughout the work. These include
several from the so-called missinai tune tradition--seasonal leitmotifs
that date in most cases to the medieval Rhineland communities and are
associated to this day throughout the Ashkenazi world with specific holy days
or occasions on the liturgical calendar. The missinai tune for the
Festival of Sukkot is heard here in Act III, as the chorus describes the
Israelites wandering in the wilderness. Another one, assigned to the Festival
of Shavuot, is heard in repeated orchestral strains throughout desert scenes
and at Sanai.
Later, postmedieval tunes of minhag
Ashkenaz (Ashkenazi custom), which became established in western and Central Europe
up through the 17th century, appear as well. One is the universal Ashkenazi
rendition of the monotheistic pronouncement, sh'ma yisra'el, preceding the
biblical readings on the High Holy Days. It is sung by Moses in Act II. Another
is an old tune associated with the singing of both Psalm 144 on Sabbath
afternoons and of the piyyut (liturgical poem) Omnom ken on Yom
Kippur eve. This tune recurs among the excerpts from Acts I, II, and IV.
Act IV, "The Prophets," was
performed as a separate act at most only once--at the premiere. Even then it had
been truncated by opening night.
Thereafter, the final scene was
most likely appropriated for the end of the third (and final) act. Other parts
might later have been incorporated into the third act as well, although there
is no existent documentation that can confirm which, if any, such excerpts were
so salvaged. Weill's complete score includes no orchestration of Act IV. Yet
Max Reinhardt's son, Gottfried, who was present at the premiere, refers
specifically in his description of that evening to the performance of a fourth
act, also implying that parts of it had indeed been eliminated by curtain time;
and he reports that the fourth act began well after midnight and ended as late
as two a.m., Variety's report of a pre-midnight ending of the entire
pageant notwithstanding. The original fourth act was to cover the final days of
Zion before Jerusalem's fall to the Babylonians, the destruction of the First
Temple, and the expulsion of the Jewish community barricaded in the
synagogue--all culminating in the procession of the biblical characters along
the "eternal road" that connected the five stages, joined by the procession of
the expelled European Jews up the "heavenly staircase" atop the fifth stage.
The concluding music on this
recording is drawn from the grand final scene and procession. The messianic
voice confirms the ultimate fulfillment of the covenant. As the procession
winds up the "heavenly stairs," a messianic figure--labeled the "Angel of the
End of Days" in Lewisohn's English version--comes down to meet them with a clear
assurance of Jewish survival. Perhaps for Weill that procession led, as it
certainly did for Weisgal and maybe by then even for Reinhardt, to Palestine,
where the messianic voice amounted to the embodiment of the Zionist ideal.
The Eternal Road embraces
a dual musical format in which the synagogue scenes are akin to intimate
chamber pieces, juxtaposed against the large choral-orchestral aura of the
vocal solo and ensemble numbers in the biblical scenes. Comparing it to his
earlier works, Weill is said to have described it not only as more varied and
heterogeneous, but also as "Mozartean."
THE PAGEANT
The Eternal Road has been
called "the most formidable project any undaunted group of repentant Jewish
artists of the highest order has yet under taken." By all reliable reports, it
was also the largest, most grandiose, and most costly pageant ever mounted in
New York--with at least 245 actors, actresses, and singers; 1,772 costumes;
1,000 stage lights; and 26 miles of electrical wiring. The opera house had to
be gutted and virtually rebuilt to accommodate the extravagant set designs.
Since the synagogue set was placed in a large area dug into the orchestra pit,
leaving no room for the 100-piece orchestra, the orchestral score was
prerecorded on film sound track and played back each night via loudspeakers
against live vocal performance. A small 16-member supplementary ensemble,
required by union regulations, played from a soundproof backstage room, from
where its music was transmitted electronically.
Despite general critical success
and glowing reviews of the music, the production ran for only 153 performances
before closing forever. Its financial woes increased as the run progressed,
until despite Weisgal's frantic efforts to save it, even the most basic bills
could not be paid. Nor had Weisgal achieved his aim of alerting the world to
the dangerous plight of German Jewry. Neither the press nor the public appeared
to have picked up on that message, almost out of political avoidance, and the
Zionist implications appear to have been ignored altogether. The final
performance was a benefit for Weisgal, who literally had bankrupted himself for
the cause. A telegram from Reinhardt proclaimed
THE LIGHT THAT WE LIT TOGETHER
IN THE MANHATTAN OPERA HOUSE WILL SHINE UNDIMMED IN THE HISTORY OF THE THEATER
AND OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE.
THE MILKEN ARCHIVE RECORDING
The excerpts here were selected
according to admittedly subjective criteria of musical merit and appeal. They
were organized into a logical narrative sequence to convey the overall beauty
and power of the work, as well as to represent its various styles and aesthetic
approaches. For their rendition in the original English of the 1937 run, further
editing was necessary beyond that done for various reconstructed performances
or German adaptations in the 1990s. Additional reconstructive choices had to be
made, essentially relying upon Edward Harsh's restored or new orchestrations.
This became a major project of the Milken Archive in collaboration with the
Kurt Weill Foundation, even before recording could commence. The number of solo
roles were reduced to twenty and covered by seven singers doubling for several
roles. A complete staged revival of the original 1937 English version has yet
to be mounted.
A chronology of the post-1937
performance history of The Eternal Road maybe found on the Milken
Archive website (www.milkenarchive.com).