Bas-Sheve at the Ashkenaz Festival

“Raise your hand if you’ve seen a Yiddish opera before,” instructed Ashkenaz Festival Artistic Director Eric Stein in his introduction to the North American premiere of Bas-Sheve, the only known pre-Holocaust Yiddish opera. Of course, none of us did, because Bas-Sheve is also the first Yiddish opera to be performed in Canada.

The opera explores the thorny biblical story of Dovid (Jonah Spungin) and Bas-Sheve (Jaclyn Grossman). But it doesn’t depict the whole story — while the program contains an eight-point summary of the story’s plot, Bas-Sheve begins at the seventh point; here, Dovid has already done some serious sinning, and it’s up to the prophet Nosn (Marcel D’Entremont) and the messenger Sheliekh (Geoffrey Schellenberg) to punish him.

But no one’s here for the story — it’s the music we’re interested in. The score, which was rediscovered in 2017 after being thought lost, is missing sixteen climactic pages. So what’s performed is a restoration by scholar-translator Diana Matut, composer-ochestrator Joshua Horowitz, and librettist Michael Wex.

Interestingly, when Horowitz was composing the new section, he didn’t entirely stick to the 1920s stylings of original composer Henekh Kon. Instead, the new section, which begins with the scraping of a gong, has some more contemporary flavourings. This works well, because this section is at the end of the opera, at the narrative’s climax — as the plot races towards its tragic conclusion, the score, too, races forwards in time, and takes on a new level of urgency.

There are also animations by Yeva Lapsker. They feel collage-like, and move slowly, at just a couple frames per second, giving them a homemade vibe.

This homemade vibe, along with the team’s creative approaches to restoration, gives the whole project a refreshingly easygoing energy: the original, incomplete material is just a starting point from which to mold a more full evening of music and art.

I’m not an experienced opera goer, but I feel the need to shout out tenor Marcel D’Entremont, who plays Nosn. For his age, he seems to have an incredibly balanced voice — and the high end of his range is utterly thrilling.

I’d be interested to see a full production of Bas-Sheve, but, for now, this new concert-style production paints quite a vivid picture.

Runs ‘til Sep 2. There is no runtime on the Ashkenaz Festival website, but the first act, which includes an introduction and the opera, is about eighty minutes. There’s also a talkback.