Fans of “Fiddler on the Roof,” rest easy. Union Avenue Opera’s production will feature the same characters, songs and story that musical theater aficionados love, with just one difference.

“We’ve hired people whose voices don’t need to be amplified, singers who offer a fuller sound than those in most musical theater productions, which are miked,” said Scott Schoonover, the artistic director and conductor.

What about the dancing?

“In our production, the dancing is simpler than, say, at the Muny, but for the bottle dance scene, we have people who can take on that complicated dance,” he said. “Again, basically, ‘Fiddler’ is not changing, we’re just presenting it with fuller sound. The most important thing about this show is always the storytelling.”

Just as in the multilayered musical — with book by Joseph Stein, music by Jerry Bock and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick — expect proud papa Teyve, patient Golde and their daughters, who help their parents adapt to changing times in Anatevka, the shtetl where “Fiddler” is set.

And expect to get teary during “Sunrise, Sunset.” It’s inevitable.

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Among the Jewish cast members are E. Scott Levin, who plays Tevye.

“The themes in ‘Fiddler’ are significant to me, part of my upbringing and heritage, so I’m the right guy for the job,” Levin said.

The bass-baritone added that he has waited almost 30 years to reprise the plum role.

“I was Tevye in the musical as a junior in high school in Galveston, Texas, and now I’ve aged into the role,” Levin said.

This time, Levin’s approach is somewhat different.

“My take on Tevye now is to capture his sarcasm and humor, but also his kindheartedness deep down,” Levin said. “My favorite parts are his monologues, when he debates with himself, weighing his traditional beliefs with more modern customs. In those moments, Tevye has to cope with the fact that things are changing and sort out when to go along — right up until the moment when he’s not willing to bend any further.”

When Levin was a student at Washington University, he got his start at Union Avenue Opera, and from 2003-2007, he served as liturgical soloist at Congregation Shaare Emeth. Now living in Los Angeles, Levin has performed with Pacific Opera Project, Los Angeles Opera and half a dozen other opera companies in California.

Amy Maude Helfer, a mezzo-soprano in the role of Yente, also has Jewish roots, some of them local.

“It feels so special to perform this role where Ruth Weil, my Ashkenazi maternal grandmother, lived for the first 18 years of her life,” said Helfer, who has performed here three time. “St. Louis has always been a city I didn’t know well, though I came here for weddings, funerals and bat mitzvahs. But now I’m staying with relatives, and I feel really connected.

“It’s also really special to be doing ‘Fiddler’ as a Jewish artist. I grew up singing the songs, dancing along on my bed, but I’ve never done the show, I’ve always wanted to, and this show is a way of honoring my own family members who had similar experiences to the characters in Anatevka.”

Helfer sees Yente as the character who initially drives the action, because the matchmaker tells Tevye and Golde’s eldest daughter that she is to marry the butcher.

“Yente is really important in her community,” Helfer said. “At the end, when she talks about going to the Holy Land and making matches there, I’m working to find the balance between how special and hopeful that is while still delivering the narrative of the story.”

Based in Connecticut and New York, Helfer sings in operas, operettas and musicals. In 2023, she was the alto soloist in the U.S. premiere of composer Lera Auerbach’s Symphony No. 6, “Vessels of Light.” Performed in Yiddish, the piece was presented by the New York City Opera in partnership with Yad Vashem and the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene.

You don’t have to be Jewish to love “Fiddler on the Roof.” Kasey Cox, the director of the production, compares Sholem Aleichem’s short stories — the original basis for the show — to another gifted writer.

“To me, this show feels a little like Shakespeare, who writes about particular characters going through particular experiences, and that makes the work more universal,” Cox said. “That’s why ‘Fiddler’ appeals to such a wide audience — because they see themselves in the characters.”

In 2023, Cox directed the musical at Missouri Baptist University, where she is director of theater and dance, and an assistant professor of theater and communications. Like Levin, Cox has performed in “Fiddler,” in high school in 2002 and again at college in 2006.

“Both times, I played Fruma Sarah, the character who provides such a clever moment for Tevye to harness Golde’s superstitions,” she said.

For Cox, the difference between directing a musical and an opera means making certain the performers can “organically move” while keeping the orchestra conductor in their line of vision.

“It’s all about the music and how the music tells the story,” she said. “The voices expressing what is happening for the characters can be all you need, and our performers’ voices fill the room.”

Event details

WHAT: “Fiddler on the Roof”
WHEN: 8 p.m. July 3, 10 and 11; at 3 p.m. July 5
WHERE: Union Avenue Opera, 733 N. Union Blvd., St. Louis
TICKETS: $24-$62
MORE INFO: 314-361-2881 or Union Avenue Opera website