Valley Light Opera is bringing Fiddler on the Roof to Northampton's Academy of Music this November, with performances running Thursday and Friday evenings and Saturday and Sunday matinees. The volunteer-run company drew a record 102 auditions for the production, and the role of Hodel alone attracted 34 women vying for the part. Leading the cast is Joe Vincent, who was selected to play Tevye for a fifth time in his career.
As reported by Amherst Indy, performances are set for Thursday, November 5, and Friday, November 6, at 7:30 p.m., with Saturday, November 7, and Sunday, November 8, matinees at 2 p.m. Vincent has acted in 34 of Shakespeare's 37 plays and performed in more than 50 musicals over his career, according to the same report, and he has said his classical training helps him move between the larger-than-life and intimate sides of Tevye. The production will also feature a large cast, choreography, a full orchestra, and sets and costumes, according to aomtheatre.com.
Rose Schwietz Malla is directing the show, a role confirmed by Berkshire on Stage, while Matthew Bertuzzi serves as music director. Malla holds an MFA in directing from UMass Amherst and spent a decade teaching theater in Nepal, where she directed and performed with One World Theatre; she was also a Fulbright U.S. Student grantee to Nepal for 2021-22, per the Amherst Indy account. She has said Fiddler celebrates people pursuing love, family, and freedom amid sorrow, a framing that echoes Valley Light Opera's own description of the show on its website, which states that the people of Anatevka “pursue life's joys — love, family, and freedom — in the face of great sorrows,” according to Valley Light Opera. Malla has also said the story will resonate with many people's experiences of exile and discrimination, the same source notes.
A Score Rooted in Jewish Musical Tradition
Bertuzzi conducts the Springfield Youth Sinfonia and serves as music director for the Springfield Honors Academy, and has worked with the Pioneer Valley Symphony Orchestra, PanOpera, and UMass Amherst, per the Amherst Indy report. He has said the score blends Jewish musical traditions with classic Broadway structure, and Valley Light Opera will augment its traditional full orchestra with instruments evoking the sound of the shtetl, the outlet reports. The company describes its orchestra elsewhere as a 25-piece volunteer ensemble comprised mainly of professional musicians, according to Valley Light Opera's own materials.
Choreographer Marybeth Mizula Vargas, who has choreographed more than a dozen shows for local theater companies, is staging the production's dance numbers, with help from Asya Schulman, the company's dance captain and dance consultant, who choreographed a large portion of the wedding dance, per Amherst Indy. Fiddler on the Roof carries a book by Joseph Stein, music by Jerry Bock, and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and is licensed by Music Theatre International. It opened on Broadway in 1964 and ran for a then-record 3,242 performances, according to Berkshire on Stage, and is based on the stories of Sholem Aleichem, as noted by METR Magazine.
Yiddish Book Center Partnership and Pre-Show Talks
Valley Light Opera is partnering with the Yiddish Book Center for dance instruction and background on shtetl communities and the world of Fiddler, the Amherst Indy report states. Sally Greenebaum has said the partnership is exciting. Ahead of the run, the company will perform two group numbers at the Yiddish Book Center's open house on October 25.
Matinee audiences on November 7 and 8 can attend a 1 p.m. pre-show talk hosted by the Yiddish Book Center, confirmed separately by aomtheatre.com, which identifies the speaker as Joshua Horowitz discussing Sholem Aleichem and the adaptations of his Tevye stories. Amherst Indy's account names Sebastian Schulman, the Center's director of special projects and partnerships, as giving a talk titled “Sholem Aleichem: The Writer Behind Fiddler on the Roof and the Adaptations That Came Before It” on the same dates. The Academy of Music will open its doors to general patrons at 1:30 p.m. for the matinees, and the pre-show talk is open to anyone.
Tickets and Accessibility
Ticket buyers should purchase only through the Academy of Music's website, according to Amherst Indy. The run is participating in the Card to Culture Program, with 10 seats offered at a discounted price of $10 to patrons holding a valid EBT, WIC, or ConnectorCare card, per aomtheatre.com; those discounted tickets are limited to four per cardholder per show and sold first come, first served.
There is no onsite parking at the Academy of Music, though public lots are available in downtown Northampton, according to Valley Light Opera. The historic venue has a front ramp and ADA-accessible seating on the Orchestra level but does not have an elevator, the same source notes.
A Milestone Year for a Volunteer Company
Valley Light Opera is a nonprofit Massachusetts corporation based in Amherst, founded in 1975, according to Amherst Indy; METR Magazine likewise describes it as a volunteer-run nonprofit founded that year by devotees of Gilbert and Sullivan. The company has produced all fourteen Gilbert and Sullivan operas and marked its 50th anniversary in 2025 with a staging of H.M.S. Pinafore. It has since broadened its offerings to include musicals such as Camelot, Brigadoon, My Fair Lady, and now Fiddler on the Roof, presenting a fully staged production every fall at the Academy of Music.
