Operatic Porgy and Bess vs. Broadway Porgy- Page 3

[OlBlueEyes]

Posted: 10/6/19 at 8:08pm

As I set forth, the Great Depression decimated Broadway financially, limiting the number of productions from 233 in 1929 to 98 in 1939. Many theaters were forced to slash prices to a range of 25 cents to a buck. And most of the shows were, as I noted, on the light side in both musical and drama. There had never been an opera staged on Broadway, none the less one with an all classically trained Africa American and I think that it is perfectly logical to presume that Gershwin did not expect a long running hit. 

This is expounded on the journal of Park Square Theatre:

You can tell from this description alone how vastly different it is from the Roaring ’20s that Gershwin is so famously associated with. As those previous orchestrations were products of their time, so was Porgy and Bess which premiered in Depression-era New York in 1935....

The run lasted four months and Porgy and Bess languished in mediocrity for decades until 1976 when the Houston Grand Opera produced the work to glowing reviews. This is when the piece secured its reputation as a classic.... One of the greatest merits of Porgy and Bess today, is conversely a reason for its initial short run. Gershwin was adamant that the show be entirely cast with classically trained African American singers. Of course this was a radical casting idea in 1930s America as the common practice was for a white performer to don blackface. Al Jolson, for example, had himself almost produced an adaptation with this idea in mind. Gershwin’s casting was brave and inspiring, giving work to dozens of African American performers on the mainstream Broadway circuit.

Complimentary to Gershwin that he chose to stage his opera on Broadway with the likelihood of a shorter run to help keep the cast employed.

Sadly, George died less than two years after the opening. What more would he have produced?

There was just as much controversy over casting and the use of racial stereotypes then as now. According to NPR, although "Porgy and Bess" closed a commercial after only a few months run, today it is widely hailed as a classic. But the great black composer and bandleader Duke Ellington said, "When "Porgy and Bess" came out, Duke Ellington said, `"The times are here to debunk Gershwin's lamp black Negroisms," by which he meant, `What is this white Jewish guy from New York trying to do caricaturing and stereotyping blacks that he sees in Charleston, South Carolina?'"

Reminiscent of the casting controversy of the recent Carousel?

I f any of you have problems with future assumptions, I strongly recommend that you read on that topic. You would be surprised at much you can learn.

 

[poisonivy2]

Posted: 10/6/19 at 8:48pm

The run lasted four months and Porgy and Bess languished in mediocrity for decades until 1976 when the Houston Grand Opera produced the work to glowing reviews. This is when the piece secured its reputation as a classic.... 

This is nonsense. In 1952 Leontyne Price sang Bess to rave reviews. The rest of her career is history. There's a wonderful pirate of her and William Warfield.

There was a recording made and everything.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gVHXCm2B4U

There was also a Hollywood film made in 1959. Of course the singing was dubbed as was the fashion. The amazing baritone Robert McFerrin did the vocals for Sidney Poitier's Porgy.

This is a difficult work to stage no matter the iteration but it didn't languish in obscurity.

[joevitus]

Posted: 10/7/19 at 12:26am

Exactly.

[Fan123]

Posted: 8/27/20 at 5:37pm

For those interested, this production is coming up in the nightly Met Opera streams on 4-5 September US time.

https://www.metopera.org/user-information/nightly-met-opera-streams/

[Jarethan]

Posted: 8/27/20 at 6:05pm

Reading this thread makes me realize that I must be pretty low-brow compared to many on this board.  I have never seem a production of Porgy and Bess that did not bore me to tears within 30 minutes of starting.  I have managed to see many operatic productions over the years (trying to grow to like opera); I have probably seen a large segment of  'wide-appeal' operas there ar.  Once.  

The only opera performance I ever really enjoyed was on Broadway...Baz Luhrmann's La Boheme. While I was occasionally bored, the big moments were goosebump inducing.  So, I figured that I finally found an opera that I really liked, and maybe that was a start.  Well five or so years later I saw La Boheme for the second time, in a less visually stunning performance than the Luhrmann version...bored out of my mind. 

[justoldbill]

Posted: 8/27/20 at 9:02pm

PORGY AND BESS has seldom "languished in mediocrity". After the 1935 run, there was a late '30s tour scheduled for California cut short by weather conditions. Cheryl Crawford's 1942 production was successful and did some touring. The Breen-Davis production of the 50's played Europe (La Scala, Moscow ,et al) and the US successfully. I saw a tour in the 60's where I had the good fortune to meet and speak with Avon Long and Eva Jessye afterwards. Meanwhile, the work has flourished in Europe with various companies, sometimes in blackface (not allowed in the US). And there's the 1959 film and Glyndebourne. Since moving to New York, I have seen productions at Radio City, City Opera, the first Met production (the only note-complete version I'm aware of), the current Met production, and, alas, the Boston production transplanted to Broadway. The work has been around.

Updated On: 8/27/20 at 09:02 PM

[VintageSnarker]

Posted: 8/28/20 at 9:21pm

I like opera. I like operetta. I did not enjoy this production at the Met. I thought it was pretty interminable and only punctuated by the bright spots of the most recognizable songs (Summertime, I Loves You Porgy) which were performed well. Part of that is opera direction/acting but the show itself didn't hold my interest that well either. I do find it harder to connect with English-language operas though. I watched some of it again on PBS. I still enjoyed the standout numbers but even with the advantage of a better "seat" so to speak, I couldn't sit through the whole thing again without a lot of fast-forwarding.

I regret not seeing the Audra McDonald/Norm Lewis production.