Fiddler on the Roof

Music by Jerry Bock
Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick
Book by Joseph Stein
First Performance: September 22, 1964
Imperial Theatre, New York

Time and Place: 1905
The fictional town of Anatevka in Russiia

The Articles

Jews in Russia: The Pale of Settlement
Russian Jews in Tevye's Time
Yiddish Language and Culture
The American Musical
Teachers' Resources

The Cast
Tevye, a dairyman
Golde, his wife
Tzeitel, Hodel, Chava, Shprintze, Bielke, their daughters
Yente*, a matchmaker
Motel Kamzoil, a tailor
Shandel*, his mother
Perchik, a student
Lazar Wolf, a butcher
Mordcha*, an innkeeper
Rabbi
Mendel*, his son
Avram* a bookseller
Nahum*, a beggar
The Ghosts of Grandma Tzeitel, Golde's grandmother and
Fruma-Sarah, Lazar Wolf's first wife
Yussel*, a hatter
Constable
Fyedka, a young Russian
Sasha*, his friend
The Fiddler*
Villagers

* Not in the original stories

Revised February 2011
Please credit Lyric Opera San Diego when using these articles