Suppose A Wedding

one-act opera by Leonard Lehrman,
commissioned in part by The Puffin Foundation,
based on the "Scene of a Play" of the same name
by Bernard Malamud (from his Idiots First collection),
composed as an intermezzo between Idiots First
and Karla, known together as Tales of Malamud,
published by Theodore Presser.

Program cover/poster by Janis Sabatino Hills-->

Suppose A Wedding was presented at
North Shore Synagogue, Syosset NY, Aug. 28, 1996
and at the International Jewish Festival of Long Island
at the Suffolk YM-YWHA in Commack NY, Sep. 2, 1996;
the staged premiere took place June 1, 1997
at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion
in Manhattan. Click here for the review
by Barry L. Cohen in The Music Connoisseur, v.5 #3.

Cast: Ronald Edwards (Feuer), Benjamin Spierman (Leon),
Janis Sabatino Hills (Adele), Joel Ackerman (Ben),
Lenora Eve (Florence, 1996), Lucy Sorlucco (Florence, 1997)
The 1997 performance was attended by Ann Malamud.
You can watch it on YouTube, complete, or in segments:
Part 1 Leon plays cards with Feuer, but leaves in a huff as Florence enters.
Part 2 Florence & Feuer argue.
Part 3 Florence & Feuer continue their argument.
Part 4 Adele comes home. Leon returns, wanting to take her out to dinner,
but she already has a date with Ben, who then shows up, asking,
"Am I too early?"

Also on YouTube, in a performance by the composer at the piano:
Feuer's Monologue, "The Rabbi & the Rich Man"
--from the 2012 Halifax Summer Opera Workshop

Adele, daughter of the retired Yiddish actor
Maurice Feuer and his wife Florence,
is torn between two young men:
Leon Singer, a sporting goods salesman her mother likes, and
Ben Glickman, a neighbor who writes and whom her father likes.