Dybbuk (ballet)

Ballet by Jerome Robbins to music by Leonard Bernstein

This article is about Robbins' 1974 ballet. For Robbins' 1980 version, see Suite of Dances (ballet).

Dybbuk is a ballet made by New York City Ballet ballet master Jerome Robbins to Leonard Bernstein's eponymous music and taking S. Ansky's play The Dybbuk as a source. The premiere took place on 16 May 1974, at New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, with scenery by Rouben Ter-Arutunian, costumes by Patricia Zipprodt and lighting by Jennifer Tipton. A revision of the choreography and the score was made later the same year; the ballet was renamed Dybbuk Variations and received its own premiere in November.

## Premise

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Yiddish playwright S. Ansky’s The Dybbuk (1912–1919) centers around Khonnon and Leah, a young couple that has been promised for marriage to each other by their fathers before they were born. Before the wedding, Leah’s father breaks off the marriage with the penniless Khonnon, who dies instantly of a broken heart. However, Khonnon has his revenge when he enters Leah’s body in the form of an evil spirit called a dybbuk, which makes her act as though she is possessed. After rabbinical intervention, the likes of which Ansky had seen in exorcism-like ceremonies among the Hasidim when traveling through present day Belarus, Leah is forced to decide whether to marry the richer man or enter an unworldly union with the ghost of Khonnon. She chooses the latter to great dramatic effect at the fall of the curtain.[1]

## Composition

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In Dybbuk Bernstein used a Kabbalistic tree to derive some of the melodic motives. By Kabbalistic tradition, each letter of the Hebrew alphabet has its own numerical value. The name of the female lead in Dybbuk, Leah, is equal to the numerical value of thirty-six. Bernstein focused his composition on the divisions of thirty-six and eighteen (the numerical value of the Hebrew word chai (חַי), meaning "life"), each multiples of the nine—the number of notes including the repetition of the top note in a symmetrical octatonic scale.[2] The result lent itself well to dodecaphonic composition but baffled critics, causing Oliver Knussen to write in Tempo, "…it is surprising to encounter Bernstein making use of numerical formulas derived from the Kabbalah… and producing his most austerely contemporary-sounding score to date."[3] Jack Gottlieb commented, "The Dybbuk ballet (1974), however, marks a kind of departure for the composer since its concern with numerology results in far more hard-edged dissonant music (sometimes 12-tone) than in any of his other works."[4]

## Original cast

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* Patricia McBride
* Tracey Bennett
* Helgi Tomasson
* Bart Cook
* Victor Castelli
* Hermes Conde

## Footnotes

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1. ^ S. Morris Engel, “Introduction,” in S. Ansky, The Dybbuk, trans. S. Morris Engel (South Bend, Indiana: Regenery/Gateway, Inc., 1979): 15–29.
2. ^ Robert Jacobson in Leonard Bernstein, Dybbuk (Complete Ballet), with the New York City Ballet Orchestra, Columbia M 3308, 1974. record.
3. ^ Oliver Knussen, Review [untitled], Tempo New Series, no. 119 (December 1970): 34.
4. ^ Jack Gottlieb, "About Leonard Bernstein", in Leonard Bernstein, Symphonies Nos. 1–3, with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Deutsche Grammophon 2709 077, 1978, record.

## References

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* Playbill, NYCB, Thursday, May 1, 2008

* Repertory Week, NYCB, Spring Season, 2008 repertory, week 1

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## Reviews

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* NY Times, Clive Barnes, May 17, 1974

* NY Times, Clive Barnes, June 11, 1974
* NY Times, Clive Barnes, December 1, 1974

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## Articles

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* NY Times, Clive Barnes, May 26, 1974
* NY Times, Richard F. Shepard, May 9, 1974

* NY Times, Anna Kisselgoff, May 12, 1974
* NY Times, Deborah Jowitt, December 8, 1974

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* 2 and 3 Part Inventions
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Musicals|

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Films|

* On the Town (1949), "based on an idea by Jerome Robbins"
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Leonard Bernstein

* List of compositions
* Awards

Opera and operetta|

* Trouble in Tahiti (1951)
* Candide (1956)
* A Quiet Place (1983)

Musicals|

* On the Town (1944)
* "New York, New York"
* "Lonely Town"
* Peter Pan (1950)
* Wonderful Town (1953)
* "Ohio"
* West Side Story (1957)
* "A Boy Like That"
* "America"
* "Cool"
* "Gee, Officer Krupke"
* "I Feel Pretty"
* "Maria"
* "One Hand, One Heart"
* "Something's Coming"
* "Somewhere"
* Tonight"
* "Tonight Quintet"
* A Party with Betty Comden and Adolph Green (1958, collaboration)
* The Race to Urga (1968)
* 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (1976)
* The Madwoman of Central Park West (1979, contribution)

Ballet|

* Fancy Free (1944)
* Dybbuk (1974)

Orchestral music|

* Symphony No. 1 (Jeremiah) (1942)
* Symphony No. 2 (The Age of Anxiety) (1948–49, revised 1965)
* Symphony No. 3 (Kaddish) (1963)
* Fanfare for the Inauguration of John F. Kennedy (1961)
* CBS Music (1976)
* Slava! A Political Overture (1977)
* Divertimento (1980)
* Concerto for Orchestra (1986, 1988, 1989, originally Jubilee Games)

Concertante|

* Prelude, Fugue and Riffs (1948)
* Serenade after Plato's "Symposium" (1954)
* Ḥalil (1981)

Chamber music|

* Piano Trio (1937)
* Clarinet Sonata (1942)
* Dance Suite (1989)

Choral|

* Hashkiveinu (1945)
* Chichester Psalms (1965)
* "Olympic Hymn" (1981)
* Missa Brevis (1988)

Vocal|

* Psalm 148 (art song, 1935)
* I Hate Music (song cycle, 1943)
* La Bonne Cuisine (song cycle, 1947)
* "So Pretty" (1968)
* Songfest: A Cycle of American Poems for Six Singers and Orchestra (1977)
* "My Twelve Tone Melody" (1988)

Piano music|

* Non troppo presto (Music for the Dance No. 1) (1937)
* Music for the Dance No. 2 (1938)
* Sonata for the Piano (1938)
* Anniversaries (1942—1988)
* Seven Ann. (1942–43)
* Four Ann. (1948)
* Five Ann. (1949–51)
* Thirteen Ann. (1988)
* Four Sabras (ca. 1950)
* Bridal Suite (1960)
* Touches (1980)

Other compositions|

* The Lark (incidental music) (1955)
* Mass (1971)
* Opening Prayer (1986)

Film adaptations|

* On the Town (1949 film)
* West Side Story (1961 film)
* West Side Story (2021 film)

Books|

* The Joy of Music

Related articles|

* Academy for the Love of Learning
* Artful Learning
* Bernstein–Mahler cycle
* Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution
* Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts
* New York Philharmonic concert of April 6, 1962
* Pacific Music Festival
* These Radical Chic Evenings (1970 essay)
* The Unanswered Question (lecture series)
* Young People's Concerts
* Maestro (2023 film)
* soundtrack

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