Update Title: BDA16759-E960-4317-96F6-3E41E9820AD2

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On the holiday of Purim, Jews read the scroll (megillah) of Esther. Although the story has
a serious moral to it, Jewish tradition has come to associate Purim with drunken revelry.
There are at least two reasons for this. The rabbis suspected that the story of Esther was a
thinly disguised Persian fairy tale and were uncomfortable taking it entirely seriously.
Also Purim falls about the same time as Mardi Gras--and it took on the spirit of carnival
merry making. Even in synagogue the reading of the story is a source of mayhem. The
congregation rattles "groggers" to drown out the name of the villain, Haman. It is also
traditional to perform comic skits based loosely on the biblical story.
In Vashti I have followed these traditions of re-telling the story with a certain amount of
irreverence and some contemporary connections. It should be performed in the carnival
spirit of Purim.
In the score the clarinet is written at concert pitch. In the performance score for clarinet it
is tranposed.

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Review: “Subtitled ‘a Purim Shpiel’ the work is a retelling of the biblical story behind the Jewish holiday. Ahasuerus, the dim-witted king of Persia, falls under the counsel of the evil Haman, who nearly convinces him to destroy the Jewish people. But Schiff, who also fashioned the witty libretto, throws in a few delightful twists. For starters, he makes the king’s first wife, Vashti, a leading figure, turning the tale into a feminist drama of sorts. Then he puts all the characters into the voice of a single singer/narrator, accompanied by an ‘orchestra’ of clarinet and piano. And finally, he flavors the highly theatrical score with lots of charming popular elements, including jazzy syncopations, klezmer-like melodies and a Bernsteinesque Broadway hustle-bustle. The result is a charmer of a work, one that resonates both as true opera—there are definable areas and stretches of recitative—and a truly unusual concert piece. Schiff’s clever craftsmanship is evident throughout: witness the brilliant clarinet cadenza at the end. But this is that rare contemporary score that hides its cleverness to reveal a real musicality. Charles Passy, The Palm Beach Post, 13 January 1997.

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