# Porgy and Bess



## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

OK, folks, after 53 years of life, I finally got to see the opera from my own beloved country that is considered, rightly or wrongly, our most important operatic achievement. Last time I talked about it, I got in trouble with another user, and mind you, I hadn't even seen it at the time. Now I'm in the middle of it, and I'll tell you...

WOW!!!!

It is terrific. TERRIFIC!!!

I thought I'd post about it in Current Watching, or Opera on DVD. Then I thought I should give it its own thread, so good it is.










OK, folks. If you haven't seen it yet, do, and you'll fall in love with it.

It's got it all. Compelling and believable plot, a great sense of theatrical drama, fabulous orchestration, lively characters, innovative music, spectacular arias (how about opening an opera with Summertime?), terrific pace, love and passion and tenderness and murder, ambivalence, temptations... briefly, your core operatic material masterfully treated.

This is a high quality 20th century opera that wouldn't be ashamed in the company of any of the masterpieces that have preceded it.

What a refreshing effect Gershwin has achieved with his lyric operatic singing mixed together with jazzy syncopation!

One can feel that while not forgetting about the tradition that is behind him, Gerswhin advances the genre to bring into it an extremely realistic and authentic spectacle.

I'm watching it with dropped jaw, I really care for these characters, and I'm gobbling the beautiful music.

The word that won't stop comming to my mind is *terrific*. Terrific, terrific, terrific.

Someone in another thread challenged the fact that in many lists, Porgy and Bess is quoted among the top 30 or top 50 greatest operas of all times.

I'll tell you, my friends, if you don't agree, it's likely because you haven't seen it. See it, and you'll surely feel that these lists are right, that this *is* one of the greatest operas ever composed.

And the above DVD is just formidable. As usual, Glyndebourne puts together something special. No weak links whatsoever, this is a very enjoyable production with top notch acting and pretty good singing, as well as excellent scenery. It feels like you're witnessing real life events. I've rarely been as entertained by an operatic DVD. Highly recommended!

And I'll be advocating for Porgy and Bess in our top 100 recommended operas thread.


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

There are some good reviews on Amazon.uk.

But one reviewer mentions poor miming. Is it that bad Alma?


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

sospiro said:


> There are some good reviews on Amazon.uk.
> 
> But one reviewer mentions poor miming. Is it that bad Alma?


Not at all. Perfect in my equipment. It's probably an issue caused by the user's equipment. You know, modern DVD players have a function to correct synchrony problems. Word sounds were exactly matched to lips in my equipment.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I'm glad to read about this particular 'road to Damascus' conversion - I haven't got it on DVD but it's really good to know that you now like this awesome work. I wonder if Porgy & Bess gave a leg-up to opera in the US in the way that Peter Grimes seemed to do here in the UK?


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

elgars ghost said:


> I wonder if Porgy & Bess gave a leg-up to opera in the US in the way that Peter Grimes seemed to do here in the UK?


Probably not. It isn't staged very often here. It is not in my list of top 20 most staged operas in the United States, and I can't remember a single occasion when I saw it advertised for live staging. As shameful as this may sound - and I was a live example of it until yesterday - I think many American opera lovers don't even know it. I mean, we know of it, but many have never seen it or listened to it except for the famous highlights.

I think that this is a shame. For example, the arena in Verona is regularly staging Aida, out of a profound sense of Italian cultural identity and patrimony. I think American opera houses should regularly stage Porgy and Bess. Maybe the Gershwin estate's requirement for all-black cast is an obstacle. But surely, this sublime masterpiece should be staged more often in its own country.

See, according to the Metropolitan Opera database, it was first staged at the Met in 1985 (shame, shame, 50 years after its premiere!!!) and last in 1990. So it's been 20 years that it hasn't been seen in our main opera house. If we don't do it, much less other countries - with one curious exception: South Africa is the country that stages it the most.

Peter Grimes on the other hand was first staged at the Met in 1948, last in 2008, and outnumbers Porgy and Bess by 17 stagings.

Porgy and Bess: neglected masterpiece...


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## jhar26 (Jul 6, 2008)

I agree with you that Porgy & Bess is a true masterpiece. There are several reasons why the opera is almost ignored despite the fact that everyone knows several of it's tunes. The main ones are as you say, the requirements for an all black cast AND the fact that prior to Porgy & Bess Gershwin was mainly known for his musicals and popular songs. Nothing wrong with that because his work in that field was of a very high quality also. But I'm sure that prejudice (read snobbism) from the world of classical music had/has(?) something to do with it as well. Imagine if one of todays pop or rock stars would come up with an opera that turns out to be very good. Most critics and even opera lovers wouldn't give it the credit it deserves purely on the basis of where it's coming from. 

If you nominate Porgy & Bess in the next nominating round I'll do so as well.


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

jhar26 said:


> I agree with you that Porgy & Bess is a true masterpiece. There are several reasons why the opera is almost ignored despite the fact that everyone knows several of it's tunes. The main ones are as you say, the requirements for an all black cast AND the fact that prior to Porgy & Bess Gershwin was mainly known for his musicals and popular songs. Nothing wrong with that because his work in that field was of a very high quality also. But I'm sure that prejudice (read snobbism) from the world of classical music had/has(?) something to do with it as well. Imagine if one of todays pop or rock stars would come up with an opera that turns out to be very good. Most critics and even opera lovers wouldn't give it the credit it deserves purely on the basis of where it's coming from.


Exactly. I confess that even I approached it with some trepidation, and some prejudices regarding the musical/opera frontier. But it didn't take me more than 5 minutes to realize - "wow, this really *is* an opera" and by 15 minutes I was mesmerized and thinking "it not only *is* an opera but it is a pretty darn good one!" Porgy and Bess like you know and like now I do too, is extremely operatic, with written through music, beautiful recitativo accompagnato instead of the spoken dialogue typical of musicals, excellent arias, all performed in true operatic lyric singing. It also deals with the traditional operatic themes, and does it all with panache and great inventiveness.

I was reading about it and it is interesting to notice that until the Houston Grand Opera company staged it in 1976, people continued to doubt whether it was an opera or a musical and opera houses wouldn't touch it, leaving it relegated to Broadway. However, this is a bit hard to understand in purely musical terms (although like you said easy to understand in terms of prejudices and snobbism) because nobody who knows even just a little bit about operatic structure can deny that it is an opera and not a musical.



> If you nominate Porgy & Bess in the next nominating round I'll do so as well.


Deal!


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Almaviva said:


> OK, folks. If you haven't seen it yet, do, and you'll fall in love with it.


Ordered.

If I've wasted my money, I'll track you down and slap you with a dead fish.


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

sospiro said:


> Ordered.
> 
> If I've wasted my money, I'll track you down and slap you with a dead fish.


Make it salmon, please. I love salmon.


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

So, I moved up to the top of my UWP and have just finished it.

Wow, it really is good (I've actually got it on CD but watching it is something else). This is the most believable and fully-fleshed set of characters I have ever come across in an opera, and you are right, Alma, you soon get to really care about what happens to them. I loved the feeling of a close-knit community united against whatever the world can throw at them, be it hurricanes or the long arm of the white man's law.

Willard White is just magnificent as Porgy, dignified and handsome and with great presence. He is well matched in his beautiful expressive Bess. Gregg Baker as Crown exudes sexuality and you could see why Bess is torn between the two, loving kindness on one hand and a kind of animal magnetism on the other. 

So why isn't it staged more often: for the reasons mentioned above, but also Wiki mentions there is some controversy about the portrayal of black society by a white man (the drugs, gambling and murder aspects).

On the other hand when you consider the amount of murder, rape, incest, abductions, executions, blackmail and general skullduggery in operas about white people, I think the good folks of Catfish Row got off pretty lightly and come over as a sympathetic kindly lot.


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

mamascarlatti said:


> So, I moved up to the top of my UWP and have just finished it.
> 
> Wow, it really is good (I've actually got it on CD but watching it is something else). This is the most believable and fully-fleshed set of characters I have ever come across in an opera, and you are right, Alma, you soon get to really care about what happens to them. I loved the feeling of a close-knit community united against whatever the world can throw at them, be it hurricanes or the long arm of the white man's law.
> 
> ...


The political correctness you're making reference to has indeed been an obstacle here, and it shows once more how misguided this sort of thing can get. See, _Così fan Tutte_ and _Lohengrin _are not exactly politically correct in their approach to womankind, which doesn't stop them from being staged and beloved. Did Gershwin approach the issue of black Americans a little naïvely? Certainly, but with obvious good intentions and sympathy; he even moved temporarily to South Carolina to live among the community he was portraying and became an advocate for them, and his requirement for an all-black cast was exactly intended to open a new front of work for African-American singers. And like you said, if one opera depicts a black community in less than flattering lights (but it's not just that, it does depict several good values in the community), there are countless operas that depict whites as murderers and rapists (_Rigoletto_, for instance). People should get passed these considerations and look at the artistic value of an artwork. Just like _Così fan Tutte _is undeniably a masterpiece in spite of its misogynistic approach (and don't get me started about Wagner's anti-Semitism and over-the-top religiosity and nationalism - which as stomach turning as they may be to me, have never stopped me from loving his operas), _Porgy and Bess _is also undeniably a masterpiece that deserves more staging. I recently read a critic saying that _Porgy and Bess_ is a formidable opera that may survive the centuries and one day someone will look back at our silly century and make fun of the silly business of political correctness which as a cultural phenomenon may be much more short-lived than this excellent opera.


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Seattle Opera are putting on Porgy & Bess & have released their Spotlight.


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## sabrina (Apr 26, 2011)

I love Gershwin, but for me Porgy and Bess is a beautiful jazzy musical. Even when sung in the operatic style, it sounds more like pop opera, but not in derogatory sense. Porgy and Bess is a wonderful piece of music.


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## amfortas (Jun 15, 2011)

sabrina said:


> I love Gershwin, but for me Porgy and Bess is a beautiful jazzy musical. Even when sung in the operatic style, it sounds more like pop opera, but not in derogatory sense. Porgy and Bess is a wonderful piece of music.


I do think it's a true opera, albeit in a jazzy idiom. But I'd never get into an argument over it. The labels don't really matter when there's such great music to enjoy.


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## sabrina (Apr 26, 2011)

amfortas said:


> I do think it's a true opera, albeit in a jazzy idiom. But I'd never get into an argument over it. The labels don't really matter when there's such great music to enjoy.


I agree! Porgy and Bess is beautiful, opera or musical or whatever else it may be called. But, for example, I prefer Summer time sung in a jazzy style, like Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong:
OMG, how beautiful it is!


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## hutchscott (May 13, 2011)

"Porgy and Bess" is the feature opera of Seattle Opera this month.


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## amfortas (Jun 15, 2011)

sabrina said:


> Porgy and Bess is beautiful, opera or musical or whatever else it may be called. But, for example, I prefer Summer time sung in a jazzy style, like Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong:
> OMG, how beautiful it is!


Summertime has become a jazz standard, and deservedly so. It can work beautifully in a wide variety of interpretations. But it was originally written to be performed in a more operatic vein, which for me is the key point if you're trying to classify the work.

Or you can just sit back and enjoy the song in all of its manifestations.


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