95 min, Yiddish with English subtitles. Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer. Also with Miriam Riselle and Florence Weiss. This is a classic story of a blacksmith who is a womanizer and almost an alcoholic. One day, he meets a beautiful lady called Tamare and his life changes. Overture to Glory (Der Vilner Shtot Khazn; the Yiddish title literally means "The Vilnius City Cantor") 1940, USA, B&W, 85 min, Yiddish with English subtitles. Directed by Max Nosseck. Helen Beverly and Florence Weiss. Oysher is the "Vilner Balabesl" - a cantor in Vilnius - with a renowned voice. Two men come from the Warsaw Opera to hear him sing "Kol Nidre" on Yom Kippur and are so impressed that they introduce him to European classical music and to reading sheet music; they convince him, against the wishes of much of his family (and especially his father-in-law) to become an opera singer in Warsaw. He leaves his job as the Vilnius cantor, and seems at first to be on the path to fame and fortune as an opera star in Warsaw, when the news arrives that his son has died. Grief-stricken, he stumbles over the aria he is supposed to sing, starting instead into a lullaby he used to sing to his son. In disgrace, he also loses his voice; he tries to return to his life in Vilna; finally, his voice comes briefly back to him on Yom Kippur. He sings the first few lines of the "Kol Nidre", then dies of a heart attack. In the 1944 movie Song of Russia, using the pseudonym Walter Lawrence, Moyshe Oysher sang "Rusland iz ir nomen" ("Russia is Her Name"), music by Jerome Kern. Singing in the Dark, 1956, USA, B&W, English. A motion picture about a Holocaust survivor suffering from total amnesia who comes to the United States and becomes a singer. Oysher sings in English and in Hebrew. See also List of Romanian Jews References External links (Musical Album:) The Power, The Glory, The Soul of Moishe Oysher. Judaica Sound Archives. Florida Atlantic University Article about Moshe Oysher - Chazzanut Online 1906 births 1958 deaths People from Briceni District People from Khotinsky Uyezd Moldovan Jews American people of Moldovan-Jewish descent Hazzans Yiddish-language singers Yiddish theatre performers Jewish American male actors Male actors from New Rochelle, New York 20th-century American male singers 20th-century American singers 20th-century American Jews