The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music review: Seattle Opera’s production of Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess” with Madison Symphony Orchestra’s maestro John DeMain gets rave reviews, and bodes well for MSO’s new season | August 11, 2011
By Jacob Stocklnger
It’s no secret that the Madison Symphony Orchestra’s music director and conductor John DeMain (below, in a photo by James Gill) knows how to do George Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess.”
After all, he pioneered doing the work with an all African-American cast. And his recording of that production won him a Grammy and led to numerous guest engagements.
He has since conducted it around the world, including at the New York City Opera, one performance of which was broadcast nationwide on PBS series “Great Performances.”
Now he is in another new production in Seattle at the Seattle Opera. The last performance is Aug. 20.
Here is a link to the Seattle Opera where you can can a video clip sampler and more information:
So far, the Seattle production has drawn rave reviews –- a good sign for the all the all-Gershwin program, with some music from “Porgy and Bess,” that the Madison Symphony Orchestra will end the next season with. (Season tickets are already on sale. Single tickets go on sale Saturday at 11 a.m. at the Overture Center box office)
Here is a link to the Madison Symphony Orchestra’s new season:
http://www.madisonsymphony.org/2011-2012season
And here are links to the reviews of the Seattle Opera production:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/thearts/2015787667_porgy02.html?cmpid=2628
http://seattle.broadwayworld.com/article/BWW-Reviews-PORGY-AND-BESS-at-the-Seattle-Opera-20110731
Curiously and coincidentally, the New York Times also ran a big story this past Sunday about another new production of “Porgy and Bess” with star singer and actor Audra McDonald.
Here is a link to that story about how they want to rework the original Gershwin opera into a more dramatic piece of theater in which, unfortunately, the music almost sounds as if it will play a secondary role:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/07/theater/porgy-and-bess-with-audra-mcdonald.html?pagewanted=all
4 Comments »
See:
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/10/stephen-sondheim-takes-issue-with-plan-for-revamped-porgy-and-bess/
As a current producer of Porgy and Bess to eight sold-out houses at Seattle Opera, I agree 100% with every word Stephen Sondheim wrote.
Ms. Paulus sees Bess as not equal to Porgy in the definition of her character. The implication in her statement is that Bess is not strong. Has Ms. Paulus never heard of other women or men who are self-destructive? She tells Porgy very clearly that she wants to be with him but cannot resist Crown. She knows herself well enough to know that she will yield even though she doesn’t want to do so. This certainly does not make her less interesting or fully fleshed out. Her drug addiction that causes her to run off to New York with Sportin’ Life is another manifestation of her character, tragic but certainly not uninteresting.
As Mr. Sondheim pointed out, great Besses have made the character live vividly. I had the opportunity to see Leontyne Price and Clamma Dale. In Seattle, Lisa Daltrius, while quite different from both, has created a fully drawn, fascinating character. Great opera characters are always defined by great performers.
As for changing the ending, my contempt knows no bounds. Perhaps Ms. Paulus will next suggest that “Tosca” and Cavaradossi successfully flee Rome or that Pinkerton has a change of heart, dismisses his American wife and unites with Cio-Cio-San. The ending of “Porgy and Bess” has brought tears to audiences since its first performance. That Porgy on either his cart or, as is more usual today, on a crutch fails to make it to New York is possible. But the inspiring spiritual-like “I’m on my way” makes anyone with a heart wish, hope, believe that the miracle will happen.
Gershwin called “Porgy and Bess” an opera for good reason. It has some of the greatest songs ever composed (as do “Carmen” and “Rigoletto”), but it also has sophisticated and brilliantly composed orchestral writing. In recent years it has sold out houses at the Washington Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the San Francisco Opera and now here in Seattle. A musical version can work, but to change the story in an attempt to “improve” what is certainly the most popular American opera ever composed is contemptible.
Speight Jenkins
General Director
Seattle Opera
Comment by welltemperedear — August 11, 2011 @ 4:03 pm
I would like to add my own personal Bravo! to Mr. Sondheim’s apt comments regarding Porgy and Bess. In my 35 years associated with this masterwork, including the current performances I’m conducting at the Seattle Opera, I can’t remember ever reading a review from either a theater critic or music critic that referred to Porgy as a flawed work.
Indeed, just the opposite was and still is the case. Porgy is still being acclaimed the “great American
opera”. Audiences, as usual, are virtually always on their feet at the end of the opera, cheering euphorically.
I can only think of two reasons, one a bit suspect, to tamper with the work. First, the desire to have more performances of this piece, which will bring the Gershwin heirs more royalties, which, in the
commercial theater, is not in itself a bad thing; and second, the inability for the same cast of opera singers to sing the piece as written eight times a week.
When we brought the Houston Grand Opera production directed by Jack O’Brien to Broadway in 1976, we were the toast of the town. Theater and music critics were over the moon. As I see it, there was one problem: the press, justifiably so, wanted to make Donnie Rae Albert (Porgy) and Clamma Dale superstars, as their performances were phenomenal. But they could only sing three performances a week, and the producers chose not to tell the public which performances they would sing. That, I believe, put a limit on the length of the run in New York — not the fact that it was all sung, or that it had structural dramatic flaws.
The other cast members on the alternate nights were also very fine performers, but the press reviewed that magical opening night cast, and that is the cast the
public wanted to see.
So maybe in this reworking of the score, making it easier for the same cast to sing six or eight times a week, might help the box office to have a longer run. I personally think tampering with the score is a no-no, as I believe Gershwin new exactly what he was trying to achieve. He was writing a folk-opera for Broadway. He knew how to write a Broadway musical as well as
anyone. He wanted to merge the two worlds of opera and music theater, and in my view, he succeeded astoundingly well.
Good luck to all involved in this new venture, and let’s just call this latest version an etude on the original.
John DeMain
Comment by welltemperedear — August 11, 2011 @ 3:58 pm
I always cringe a little bit when they add a new ending, or substantially rewrite, because it seems that audiences today only want happy endings, or have everything spelled out to them, instead of the ambiguity and suspense that seems to have been forgotten. I’m a bit scared for this new revival of “Porgy” that’s heading to Broadway.
Comment by musickcub — August 11, 2011 @ 8:31 am
Dear musikcub,
Thanks for reading and replying.
I’m with you.
I don’t much like rewriting proven masterpieces.
This one sounds like the Classics Comics or romance novel version of “Porgy and Bess.”
It is an opera, with a loves tory but not only a love story. The music is central and vital, not expendable or secondary.
I’m not so bothered by tasteful editing or shortening.
But that is different than major reworking or redoing, no?
The new version sure sounds over the top to me.
Let’s see what the critics say and how the audiences react.
Best,
Jake
Comment by welltemperedear — August 11, 2011 @ 9:14 am