I loves you, Porgy

June 4, 10:43 AMSF Classical Music ExaminerScott Foglesong

Previous Next

Comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the SF Classical Music Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Bloomington, Indiana, Sunday March 5, 1967: the Foglesong clan, including my teenaged self, gathered before our once-fancy, now-aging Zenith "hand-wired" color TV to watch the ABC network broadcast of the Otto Preminger film of "Porgy and Bess." I loved it, found it heartbreaking at the end, and within about a year had a copy of the soundtrack LP.

Good thing we watched it that night, since the film never again appeared on network television.

The movie and soundtrack album both have been withdrawn from release by request of the Gershwin estate; the film is said to be in dire need of restoration if the Todd-AO original is to survive. Although I recognize that neither the film nor its soundtrack is worthy of Gershwin's great achievement, I would like to see both restored, remastered, and made available. They're part of the Porgy legacy.

The original cast in rehearsal

But we have other wonderful documents of Porgy and Bess. Members of the original cast left us recordings -- originally scattered over a 5-year period and now assembled into an "original cast" album; Goddard Lieberson and Lehman Engel gave us a fascinating 1951 rendition; the Houston Grand Opera returned the score to its original complete form; Trevor Nunn's Glyndebourne production wound up being expanded and committed splendidly to video. We even have a recent John Mauceri recording which presents the score as it was heard in its original Broadway run -- massively cut, to be sure, but all of the cuts are George's.

The creative team: George Gershwin, DuBose Heyward, and Ira Gershwin

Porgy and Bess is one of the great Gershwin works, but sharp criticism has dogged it from the inception. While the most common objections impress me as valid, they do not suffice for me to lose my fascination with this sui generis slice of American musical theater.

The criticisms and my thoughts about them:

Porgy and Bess depicts African-Americans as negative stereotypes: drug dealers/users, sexually promiscuous, unintelligent, and violent.

This one is the 500-pound gorilla that has followed Porgy around since its first incarnation as a play by DuBose Heyward. The charge was valid then, and it's valid now; to excuse it on the grounds of being a portrait of a time and place long gone is facile rationalizing. A sensitive production can go far to soften the discomfort, given that Porgy's central core story is universal and compassionate, but nothing can ameliorate the problems altogether. Perhaps Porgy and Bess's track record of helping to launch the careers of a number of prominent African-American artists offers some counterbalance, but again not enough.

The orchestration is mediocre and sounds muddy in an opera house or theater.

Check; no argument. However, Porgy on record -- DVD, CD, film, or whatever -- benefits mightily from microphone placement, and given the relative paucity of productions, most of us will encounter the show via recorded media, and not the theater.

The show can't make up its mind whether it's a Broadway musical or an opera.

Why should it? If we just accept it as "musical theater" -- a label which can apply to anything from The Play of Daniel to Sunset Blvd., quibbles about genre disappear. Besides, I'm not sure what an "opera" is, anyway: Monteverdi and Wagner, Mozart and John Adams -- will the real "opera" please stand up? Or, for that matter, the real "Broadway musical?" Like The Most Happy Fella, Sweeney Todd, and Nixon in China, Porgy and Bess challenges our assumptions about musical genres.

The score is too eclectic for its own good, mixing faux-Puccini, jazz, popular songs, and even Jewish synagogue idioms.

That might be an appropriate criticism from a purely technical point of view, but the sum total easily blends its disparate parts and works beautifully. Sometimes pieces with stylistic or technical flaws wind up transcending their limitations; Schubert's meandering rondos come to mind, or Schumann's orchestral works with their pianistic orchestrations. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds: the irresistable force of Gershwin's musical imagination trumps all.

The opera is too long and contains passages which come off as padding.

Certainly the original creators had some doubts about the show's length, given the massive cuts they made in the original production. I have to admit I've found the parts leading up to the storm sequence a bit long-winded, and to this day I still think that the Otto Preminger movie placed "I Loves You, Porgy" much more effectively than the original. However, the recent trend towards complete productions, spearheaded by the Houston Grand Opera, have made it clear that Porgy and Bess, while lengthy, cruises along beautifully in its original, uncut version.

First page of the manuscript
Photo: Library of Congress

The San Francisco Opera is performing Porgy and Bess throughout June; check here for dates, times, and ticket info.

Photo: Robert Millard

Here are some of the major recordings of Porgy and my thoughts about them:

Decca Presents Selections from George Gershwin's Folk Opera Porgy and Bess (MCA Classics)

This is the "original cast" album, in that sense that the principals from the 1935 production recorded various numbers from the show over a period of some years, but it isn't a pure "original cast" album as became the norm with Rodgers & Hammerstein's "Oklahoma" some years later. Nevertheless, this one's a no-brainer for anybody who is interested in this landmark score. Todd Duncan certainly set a very high bar for all subsequent Porgys; his lyrical, passionate performance remains to my mind one of the finest in the work's history, and Anne Brown provides a Bess worthy of the best as well. And hearing it from the folks who worked with the Gershwins and author DuBose Heyward isn't exactly bupkis.

1951 Studio Recording (Columbia)

Starring Camilla Williams and Lawrence Winters, and featuring members of the original cast (including the second Sportin' Life, Avon Long), this was the landmark first recording of the score as an opera rather than a series of musical numbers. It is heavily cut, to be sure, but at the same time restores certain musical numbers (such as the "Buzzard Song") unheard since the original production tryouts.

Musically it remains a triumph. Perfect, no. Compelling and wonderful, yes. I practically wore the grooves off the copy in the Peabody library.

So naturally it's out of print here in the US, even in the remastered version. Fortunately you can find used copies fairly easily, and Naxos offers it as well -- but you have to shop at an overseas vendor.

1952 Berlin Performance (Guild)

The US State Department helped to sponsor this touring production of Porgy, in a version close to the original stage production. This performance was recorded live in Berlin September 12, 1952. It stars Leontyne Price, William Warfield, and Cab Calloway (as Sportin' Life) in a rambunctious, vivid, and altogether winning performance. Maybe it isn't an absolute must, but I strongly recommend it nonetheless.

Glyndebourne 1988, Sir Simon Rattle conducting (EMI)

Of the various modern complete versions, this one impresses me as being the strongest contender. (The Houston Grand Opera production gives it a run for its money, while the Lorin Maazel is kinda starchy overall.)

The same recording provides the underlying soundtrack of the magnificent Trevor Nunn video production.