SHESTAPOL, WOLF

SHESTAPOL, WOLF ("Velvele Khersoner"; c. 1832–1872), ḥazzan. Shestapol was born in Odessa and as a youth sang with his father Samuel and with bezalel shulsinger (Odesser). After his appointment as ḥazzan in Kherson he studied for some time with solomon sulzer in Vienna. Shestapol derived his inspiration from those aspects of European art music which had become accessible to him in Odessa and Vienna. In his case, the dependence on Italian and French opera was extremely pronounced. His compositions, of a soft and lyrical character, became very popular and some of them were taken over into the Yiddish theater by goldfaden and others. They include Omnam Ken, Musaf-Kaddish for the Penitential holidays, Ve-al ha-Medinot, and Adonai Zekharanu. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Idelsohn, Music, 308–9; Hyman H. Harris, Toledot ha-Neginah ve-ba-Ḥazzanut be-Yisrael (1950), 419–20; P. Minkowsky, in: Reshumot, 2 (1927), 129–30. (Bathja Bayer)