Thursday, February 28, 2008

Opera Review: Porgy & Bess

By Mark-Brian Sonna of MBS Productions

George Gershwin’s opera Porgy & Bess premiered on Broadway October 10, 1935. It was a strange location for an opera to premiere, but because of the unconventional nature of the piece it now seems aptly appropriate. Gershwin, arguably the greatest American composer, was able to cross over from the popular music world to the realm of the classical world. Classical critics at the time criticized his populist appeal. His famous Rhapsody in Blue settled the question. From that point on he was given leeway to cross back and forth without much question except for Porgy and Bess. It was an opera that contained many catchy tunes. Like Puccini in Italy, Gershwin’s songs from this opera could be performed out of context in nightclubs, on records, sung by popular singers, and be fully enjoyed. While American critics applauded Puccini, Gershwin had the lot divided. Porgy & Bess like Rhapsody in Blue is a hybrid musical form, it mixes musical genres. Rhapsody mixes jazz with classical sounds, Porgy & Bess mixes spirituals, jazz, pop, and operatic sounds. It is quintessential Gershwin.

The Dallas Opera has taken the full fledged operatic approach to presenting this piece. They are following the precedent set by the Houston Opera when in 1976 they presented it as a classical piece. From its original premiere till that point Porgy & Bess had been watered down to a musical format. The 1976 production helped re-established the grand nature of the opera and since then it has entered into the repertoire of just about every company in the world. The influence of that production can clearly be felt in the current version. Dallas Opera’s presentation is solid, but by hitting us on the head with such a straightforward operatic convention, the production has lost some of its soul.

The story centers on the lives of the people living in the poor tenement of Catfish Row. Porgy is a cripple, Bess is a drug addict, and together they develop and unconventional relationship. Crime, love, superstition, death, religion and tradition are some of the subjects and themes explored. The story is episodic, and has an open ending. As a narrative it is truly modern and ensconced in mid 20th century sensibilities. Some of the stereotypes are shocking by today’s standard but they reflect the viewpoint of the era, so they must be taken in context.

I realize my next statement will seem rather controversial given the current view of how this opera should be performed: Porgy & Bess needs to be re-evaluated, and someone should shatter this overly classical delivery. Gershwin created musical stews. In an interview he stated: “In Porgy and Bess I realized I was writing an opera for the theater, and without songs, it could neither be of the theater nor entertaining from my viewpoint.” I agree. There is no reason the famous song "I’ve got plenty o’ nuttin’" should practically be unrecognizable by giving it full voice. Gershwin knew how to write a catchy tune or melody line, and he knew how to create orchestral moments, and he knew how to have both moments happen within the same piece such as in American in Paris. Why can’t we have a jazz, classical, and spiritual hymn delivery all within the same show? Gershwin never called Porgy & Bess a classical opera; he called it a Folk opera.

Only two performers captured the different styles within this opera. Victor Ryan Robertson as Sportin’ Life plays a flashy dope peddler. He gets some of the more famous songs to sing in the show, and he delivers them with differing vocal stylizations based on the nature of the tune. His delivery of the song "It Ain’t Necessarily So" proved he is an operatic tenor, but also a jazz stylist. He slides from a pop tune delivery to soaring notes within the same song, yet it felt complete. Sherna Armstrong in the smaller role of Lily did the same thing. Both performers left very memorable impressions.

Gordon Hawkins as Porgy, and Indira Mahajan as Bess have stupendous voices, but I felt their passion was watered down, not by their acting, but by their vocal singing. The melody line from the song "I Loves You Porgy" gets repeated throughout the production, and while it was accompanied by their gorgeous voices, the emotional intensity of those notes was diminished by their operatic delivery. Basically what I’m saying is that this production was gorgeously presented, beautifully sung, but it lacked soul, which is an odd thing to say given the nature of the storyline and music.

The set, lighting, and costuming were appropriately spectacular. The Dallas Opera operates with a large enough budget to make their productions sizzle visually. Though we are in February, one could feel the heat of summer emanate from the stage. The ever changing sky with its hues of amber and gold was beautiful but oppressive. The interlocking set pieces felt grand and claustrophobic, the period clothing was visually tactile. There was the constant push pull of beauty and despair in the design elements.

The director and choreographer Hope Clark gets a very mixed review. Her dance sequences were wonderful. She created some amazing choreographic moments. Unfortunately she doesn’t know how to handle large crowds on a stage, or how to make the quiet moments where there are only two or three people on stage interesting. Enough with having the singers march to down center stage and then walk away. The stage is enormous, it should be used! Having a crowd enter all at once and then all at once dissipate without any reason makes no sense. There are ways to bring on 30 people on stage without making it look like cattle call.

The orchestra conducted by Wayne Marshall did their job exceptionally well. The sound was truly Gershwin. The only problem was the balance of sound was off. The orchestra was louder then the singers. The chorus led by Alexander Rom sounded great but over enunciated their consonants and it created some odd emphasis. Outside of Sportin’ Life and Lily, all the soloists so emphasized the vowels, I couldn’t understand what was being said. I had to rely on the super titles to understand the dialogue. This in a way sums up the problem with doing this Opera in the Grand Style. You need operatic voices to be able to hit the notes and sustain it, but they have to give a jazz, soul and blues delivery depending on the song or the words, so the passion doesn’t gets lost.

Porgy & Bess is a good production, and worth seeing, but it is not a great production. Purchase tickets online or by calling 214-443-1000.

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Comments

bobdon000 Anonymous

I have a recording of the Houston Opera production of P&B; it is wonderful music.

But your very positive review of the (DO) set, lighting, and costuming makes me think this might be a production worth seeing.

Thanks for the tip.

4 months, 3 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )