The Well-Tempered Ear

Classical Music: Wisconsin Public Television will broadcast George Gershwin’s opera “Porgy and Bess” – with Madison maestro John DeMain conducting — this Friday night and Sunday afternoon.

By Jacob Stockinger

A good friend and blog fan writes:

“The three-hour nationwide broadcast of the 2009 San Francisco Opera production will be aired this Friday night at 8 p.m. and Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m. as part of PBS’ Fall Arts Festival.”

The highly praised production features maestro John DeMain (below, in a photo by Prasad) , the longtime music director and conductor of the Madison Symphony Orchestra, which performs an all-Russian program this weekend. DeMain is also the artistic director of the Madison Opera. He frequently guest conducts around the nation and the world.

DeMain has conducted, to large audiences and critical acclaim, excerpts of “Porgy and Bess” here in Madison. It has long been a specialty of his. In fact, DeMain won a Grammy for his all-black cast in New York City in 1976. He also conducted a production that was broadcast on PBS several years ago by the now–defunct City Opera of New York.

The San Francisco Opera production stars two highly acclaimed singers: bass-baritone Eric Owens as Porgy and soprano Laquita Mitchell as Bess.

But don’t look for a local production of the entire opera.

“When you see the big cast,” this fan explains, “it becomes very clear why we in Madison and the Madison Opera cannot do “Porgy and Bess” in Madison. It is just too big.”

Here are the specifics: “Porgy and Bess” will be broadcast on Friday night at 8-11 p.m. on The Wisconsin Channel (Cable Channel 972). It will be broadcast again on Sunday at 4-7 p.m. on the flagship WPT channel (Channel 21, Cable Channel 600 in HD).

The Ear thinks that it is too bad that the PBS broadcasts won’t be shown on a big screen in some cinema, like the “Met Live in HD” series. It would be fun to see the production in a group.

Here is a link to a preview from Wisconsin Public Television:

http://wptschedule.org/episodes/45345123/The-Gershwins–Porgy-and-Bess-from-San-Francisco-Opera/

Here is a link to a review from a SFGATE website for San Francisco:

http://www.sfgate.com/music/article/TV-review-S-F-Opera-s-Porgy-and-Bess-5819710.php

And here are links to the San Francisco Opera website that also includes a blog that talks about “Porgy and Bess” and also has complete cast information:

http://sfopera.com/Home.aspx

http://sfopera.com/porgy.aspx#media-videos

Finally, to whet your appetite, here is a YouTube video with excerpts of favorite moments from the San Francisco Opera production of “Porgy and Bess”: