By accident he filled a
role in the troupe), giving him the role to play of
"Shemai" in Gordin's "Jewish King Lear," and since
then he has remained an actor, spending less time
with orchestral conducting.
In 1910 he became the
conductor of the national Ukrainian theatre "Besida,"
but soon due to family concerns, he left and took to
traveling with provincial troupes across Galicia and
then, together with K. M. Ebell, went off to
Argentina, where he wrote in "Yidisher soykher
(Jewish Merchant)."
In 1912 he performed as
a comic and regisseur under Meltzer's direction in
Romania, and he also participated with Dina Feinman
in Gordin repertoire.
During the
Romanian-Bulgarian war, he was expelled as an alien
from Romania, and he returned to Galicia, where he
performed with small breaks in the troupe of Glimer
and his brother Jacob Prizament, until the outbreak
of the First World War.
As a soldier he was
active on the Russian and Italian fronts, and in
1918 he arrived in Vienna, where he opened the "Bemishn
Haf," a Yiddish theatre, and there he staged his
play "The Destruction of Lemberg." Due to a
denunciation, he lost his concession to perform, and
he traveled to Budapest, where he became during the
Bela-Kuhn period, Commissar of the Jewish
worker's stage, and afterwards he united with the
troupe of Shtramer, Rabinowitz, Vayts, Stein, and
performed there until the Horthy government forbade
Yiddish theatre. Now he traveled, returning to
Vienna and opened there, under his artistic
management, a miniature theatre, where he performed
most of his things. Here he also composed, together
with Avish Meyzels, the play "The Golem of Prague"
(Sh. Prizament and A. Meyzels. Der golem. Play in
three acts. Publisher Sh. Goldfarb, Warsaw, 32 pp.,
16°). In text, it was given as a "musical legend in
four acts.)
In 1920 he founded,
together with Zachariah Francis (sp) and Itzhak
Mestel in Pressburg (Bratislava), Czechoslovakia,
the troupe "HaOr" (see "Lexicon of the Yiddish
Theatre," V. 1, p. 572), which disbanded in 1922.
In 1923 he arrived in
Poland, and there he founded a troupe under the name
of "HaOr." However, after meeting Gizi Hajdn. who
became his wife, he organized another troupe, and in
1924-1925 he founded, along with Hersh Hart, a
troupe for the Galician province. In 1925 he
guest-starred in Warsaw in the "Kaminska" Theatr,"
and there he stayed for a season. At the same time
he wrote music and songs for the operetta "Di
galitsianer mume (The Galician Aunt[?])" and for
Moshe Richter's "Di tsvey shvigers (The Two
Mothers-in-Law)."
In 1927 he joined the "Sambatiyon,"
where he composed the music (and also several songs)
to Nozyk's revues, "Dirh-noyt," "Der rebe hot
geheysn freylekh zayn," "Vu nemt men a khasen?" and
"Nokh havdalah." In 1928 he joined the "Azazel-Sambatiyon"
ensemble as a musical director, and after the
disbanding of the ensemble he traveled to Romania,
where he performed in the local Yidish theatre (also
in a revue theatre_ and acted afterwards again in
Vienna and later in Poland.
In 1933 he composed a
play "In Hitler-Land," which was performed in
Warsaw's "Kaminska Theatre."
In the summer of 1938 he
performed in Lemberg's summer theatre in Richard
Foss' play "Shrey, Israel," and then associated
himself with the guest-starring troupe there "Vik't,"
for which he adapted the music to Goldfaden's "Shulamis,"
which was put on there in a new adaptation of
Zygmunt Turkow. About the music, Israel Ashendorf
writes:
"Shlomo Prizament, with
great prudence and love, had created intermezzos, a
part melody combined with his, a part rhythmic and
adapted for dance. He played very much a large part
in the success of the production."
P. also adapted for the
same troupe the music to the modernized production
of Goldfaden's "Bar Kochba," about which Dr. Leib
Hammer writes:
"Shlomo Prizament had
preserved Goldfaden's music to 'Bar Kochba," but
farfeynert, connected it together with rhythmic
sounds and created the music getrey the
Goldfaden-like soul to the new image, which was
first to come together."
Also a production was
advertised for a Goldfaden play "Broder-Singer,"
adapted by Israel Ashendorf with P.'s music.
P. has composed the
following plays:
"Lemberg far der
melkhome (Lemberg Before the War)"; "A moyd fun
provints (A Girl From the Province/Sticks)," adapted
from the German, with music, which was performed in
Czernowitz, had translated "Muter un tokhter (Mother
and Daughter) by Paul Hause, had writen music and
songs to "Shloymele Sheygets" by Shtshorgol, "Di
blumen kenigin" by Shtshogol, "Dos arendars tokhter"
by Leib Drucker, "Lah'kes mazel" by Leib Drucker,
"Dos kabaretn-meydl" by Leib Drucker, and "Khli-zmr,"
after Gurewitz, as well as illustrated music to
Sholem Asch's "Der toyter mensh," Peretz's "In
polish oyf der keyt," Foss' "Daniel Danieli," Dr.
Fistner's "Dem bel-shm's mufs," Kalmanowitz's "Eybike
naranis," "Moshe, vos krichstu?" and "Yukl dem
khazan's," to A. Nager's "Lustike yugnt," and
adapted and wrote music to 'Oyf der shvel fun glik."
He also composed several
hundred songs and couplets. The most popular of them
were: "Fannie's Mplh," "Davenen fun eyn mkhzur'l," "Sha,
Sha, der rebbe geyt" (from which the music was,
without the knowledge of P.., used in a "musical
comedy" on Broadway), "A shpilekhl," "Moshiakh
flit," "Der rebbe hoydet zikh," "Doktor shteynakh."
During the Second World
War, P. survived by escaping to the Soviet Union.
M. E.
-
Y. G. Sh. -- Fir
-- A yidishe operetn-trupe vos fardint a por
vareme verter, "Dos naye lebn," Bialystok, 22
March 1929.
-
L. Dreykurs --
An'aktuele teaqter-piese "In Hitler-Land," "Unzer
ekspres," Warsaw, 11 May 1933.
-
Israel Ashendorf
-- Di shulamis-oyffirung baym "Vikt" in lemberg,
"Literarishe bleter," Warsaw, 1, 1939.
-
Dr. Leib Hammer
-- Premiere "Bar Kochba" in "Vikt," "Literarishe
bleter," Warsaw, 11, 1939.
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