A Moscow audience of 2, 000 that filled the Chaikovsky Conservatory auditorium there to capacity cheered, wept and called for more encores last night when Jan Peerce, famous Metropolitan Opera tenor, sang Yiddish and Hebrew songs as part of a long recital that featured chiefly operatic arias, according to Moscow dispatches received here today, Mr. Peerce is in the Soviet Union for a month-long tour.
Mr, Peerce interjected the Yiddish and Hebrew songs as encores to operatic numbers. One of the songs, in Yiddish, was the famous plea of the Berditchever Rebbe who, addressing God, bewails the lot of the Jews. Dozens of men and women wept openly as he sang that number. Among members of the audience were at least two bearded men, wearing skullcaps. Later, Mr. Peerce sang the 13th Psalm, in Hebrew, opening with the words; “How long wilt Thou forget me, oh Lord?”
An authoritative Soviet source said after the concert that Mr, Peerce will be asked to extend his stay in the USSR for an additional recital featuring Yiddish folk songs as well as operatic arias.
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