Lvov
Lvov was not exactly a dramatist's dream. Leon Dreykurs described audiences bringing meals into the theater, rustling paper, treating the theater like a beer garden. He also quotes Jacob Schatzky: "All in all, the Galician milieu was not favorable to Yiddish theater. The intellectuals were assimilated, but the masses were fanatically religious and they viewed Jewish 'comedians' with disdain."
Nonetheless, Iacob Ber Ghimpel, who owned a Yiddish theater there, was glad to have a figure of Goldfaden's stature. Goldfaden completed the play he'd started in Paris, Rabi Yoselman, oder Die Gzerot fun Alsas ("Rabbi Yoselman, or The Alsatian Decree"), in five acts and 23 scenes, based on the life of Josel of Rosheim. At this time he also wrote an operetta Rothschild and a semi-autobiographical play called Mashiach Tzeiten (Messiah Times) that gave a less-than-optimistic view of America.
Kalman Juvelier, an actor in Ber Ghimpel's company, credited Goldfaden's brief time in Lvov as greatly strengthening the caliber of performance there, working with every actor on understanding his or her character, making sure that the play was more than just a series of songs and effects, respected by all.
Read more about this topic: Abraham Goldfaden