By Richard Dyer, Globe Staff, 03/19/99
CAMBRIDGE - ''Yossele Solovey'' is an interesting but unsuccessful new opera by an interesting and highly successful individual, Noam D. Elkies, a mathematician who at 27 became the youngest person ever tenured on the Harvard University faculty. . . . .
. . . ''Yossele Solovey'' continues a tradition of opera in the Lowell House dining room that goes back to 1938, a series that includes a number of ambitious premieres and revivals. Elkies's new opera is based on a novel by Sholem Aleichem, whose stories are also the source of ''Fiddler on the Roof.'' Yossele is a young village cantor with a glorious voice who is seduced by fame, fortune, and a lecherous widow from the big city. His story is a rake's progress, and he breaks the heart of Esther, the village maiden who has loved him true. In the end, she goes mad and dies, and he sings kaddish over her grave.
. . . Stage director Dax Kiger did a good job with minimal means; the costume designs by Stephanie Richardson and Veronika Zamdmer and the lighting by Jennifer Simon were excellent. . .
This story ran on page D12 of the Boston Globe on 03/19/99.
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