Soprano Alyson Cambridge calls Washington National Opera's 'Porgy' a 'homecoming' 3/20-4/3

For soprano Alyson Cambridge, the Washington National Opera's "Porgy and Bess" beginning March 20, is a "homecoming" in many ways.

Cambridge, who portrays Clara and sings "Summertime", the most famous in the renowned Gershwin opera, has studied and performed music from "Porgy" ever since she was a teenager growing up in the DC area. She studied at DC's Levine School of Music while attending Sidwell Friends School, and had always "dreamed of performing with the Washington National Opera.".

"There's just something about the music that's naturally a part of me. It's part of my DNA," she told me. "When my first voice teacher gave me the music, it was an automatic fit. I didn't overthink it or overanalyze it. Innately, I knew how it should go, the style and the feel of the piece."

Ever after, "Every time I sing the music, it's like a homecoming." She added, "It gives me a lot of pride to sing 'Porgy and Bess'."

This is her fourth time performing Clara -- including her Washington National Opera (WNO) debut in 2005. The current cast is "like a family reunion. I know 75-80 percent of the cast."

George Gershwin had stipulated in his will that all cast members of all "Porgy" productions must be African Americans. "That's a rather small pool, so the casts keep overlapping" Cambridge noted. "Quite different from casts of 'La Bohème', when I sing Musetta" as she did in WNO's 2007-2008 production, and in her debut with the Portland (OR) Opera last fall.

Known mostly for operatic roles, does she feel that Clara fully showcases her voice? "Sure. 'Summertime' has a pretty high tessitura (texture, vocal range). It's so beautifully lyric, and the melody is great. It's gratifying to sing it."

Yes, "Summertime", "Bess, You Is My Woman Now", "I Got Plenty O' Nuttin'" and all of "Porgy and Bess" 's wonderful, 's marvelous, and d'lightful, d'lovely -- but is it truly opera?

Cambridge gives a resounding yes. "It requires operatically trained, classically trained singers. It has an arc and flow of opera. It has lush orchestration, with huge soaring lines like Puccini." She sums up -- "This is not easy music."

When "Porgy" debuted -- on Broadway 75 years ago this October -- American composer Virgil Thomson  famously described it as “crooked folklore and half-way opera.”

Cambridge says, "It might soothe people to think of it as 'opera crossover' or whatever. It entertains people. They sway in their seats, tap their feet, cry... But it's opera."

The soprano speaks from a wealth of experience. She was in the Metropolitan Opera's HD broadcasts last season of Puccini’s “La Rondine” and Massenet’s “Thais”.

And she's been a member of the Met’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program ever since winning a Grand Prize at The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 2003.

Also, the 20-something soprano returns to the WNO just weeks after her Carnegie Hall recital and debut of the one-woman opera, "The Diary of Sally Hemings" (White Pine Music). 

Based on Thomas Jefferson's slave and lover, Sally Hemings, the song cycle is composed by William Bolcom,with libretto by Sandra Seaton. 

Bolcom uses the 18th century term "monodrama" to describe his composition. And he describes Cambridge as having "an actress's sense of who Sally was, unusual for someone trained largely as a concert and opera singer." Bolcom is one of many to praise Cambridge as actress. 

With all this, Cambridge has got plenty of everythin'.

For more info and tickets: Washington National Opera's "Porgy and Bess", March 20-April 3 at Kennedy Center. Tickets, 202-295-2400 or 800-US-OPERA or tickets@dc-opera.org. Alyson Cambridge, www.alysoncambridge.com. “Porgy and Bess” by George Gershwin, DuBose and Dorothy Heyward, and Ira Gershwin is directed by Francesca Zambello, and conducted by American music specialist John Mauceri. Cast members also include Eric Owens alternating with Lester Lynch as Porgy; Morenike Fadayomi and Indira Mahajan alternating as Bess.