Dybbuk (1974) by Leonard Bernstein

Jerome Robbins

May 16, 1974, New York City Ballet, New York State Theater

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

In Central-European Jewish folklore, a dybbuk is a spirit, lost and restless, which enters and persists in the body of a living person. The body possessed acts and speaks with the behavior and voice of the dead one. The most famous treatment of this theme is S. Ansky's play, The Dybbuk, renowned in its original Yiddish version and through many subsequent international productions. The ballet is not a retelling of Ansky's play, but uses it only as a point of departure for a series of related dances concerning rituals and hallucinations which are present in the dark magico-religious ambience of the play and in the obsessions of its characters.