Kenneth Kiesler - Gimpel the Fool

After finishing the work in 1980, Schiff rescued some of the music in a purely instrumental score Divertimento from Gimpel the Fool (1982), one of the great post-war chamber pieces, which is how I first heard it (available, incidentally, on Delos 3058; however, Delos has had such trouble in recent years, you'd better grab it while you can). Nevertheless, the opera is just as wonderful. There's not a dull scene in it. The singers are ideal for the piece. The ensemble is sharp (a fiendishly close canon on the words "Mazel tov" to a klezmer riff made my jaw drop). Above all, the performance involves a listener in the drama. The CD case proclaims this as part of the "American Opera Classics" series. From the Naxos marketing department, to God's ear.

1) Act 1. Overture
2) Act 1. Elka's Death-Bed Scene
3) Act 1. Gimpel's Monologue
4) Act 1. the People of Frampol
5) Act 1. the Rabbi's Advice
6) Act 1. the Rabbi's Daughter
7) Act 1. Little March
8) Act 1. Gimpel Courts Elka
9) Act 1. Little March Reprise
10) Act 1. the Wedding Canopy
11) Act 1. Badkhen's Song
12) Act 1. the Wedding Contract
13) Act 1. the Wedding Song
14) Act 1. Breaking the Glass
15) Act 1. a Black Moment
16) Act 1. Mazel Tov
17) Act 1. After the Wedding
18) Act 2. Lullaby
19) Act 2. Pantomime
20) Act 2. Bread Song
21) Act 2. Night Music
22) Act 2. Gimpel and the Goat
23) Act 2. Elka's Gevalt
24) Act 2. the Divorce
25) Act 2. Gimpel's Second Monologue
26) Act 2. Little March Reprise
27) Act 2. Pantomime Continued
28) Act 2. the Evil One
29) Act 2. Finale Part 1
30) Act 2. Finale Part 2