Washington, DC—[Final.] After a long winter hiatus, the Washington National Opera opened the second half of its 2009-2010 season Saturday at the Kennedy Center Opera House with a dark, emotionally charged production of the greatest American opera ever, George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. A reprise of the company’s acclaimed 2005 Francesca Zambello production running now through April 3, it includes alternating casts and a number of tweaks whose aim is to bring this iteration closer to Gershwin’s original intentions.
Zambello’s concept updates the opera’s setting from the 1920s to the early 1950s. Her gritty, multi-story, constructivist sets—also used in the 2005 show—remain intact. Then as now, they serve to highlight Porgy’s impoverished South Carolina community with all its rich relationships and religious fervor.
Adapted from a novel-turned-play by South Carolina native DuBose Heyward and his wife Dorothy and with lyrics by Ira Gershwin, Porgy takes place in the seething black tenements of Charleston’s “Catfish Row"—89-91 Church Street—an enclave known in Heyward’s day as “Cabbage Row.” (The actual buildings are still there. But they've been renovated into a touristy warren of trendy shops.)
Porgy and Bess.
(Eric Owens and Morenike Fadayomi.)
He's got his woman now.
(All photo credits, Karin Cooper.)
Based on a real Charleston character, Heyward’s novel is the story of Porgy—a poor, crippled beggar—and his tragic yet oddly noble love for his drug-addicted Bess. Porgy takes Bess in after her longtime lover, the brutish Crown, high on “happy dust,” guts an innocent neighbor with a cotton hook after a pointless argument. After a number of plot twists, Porgy murders Crown to save Bess. He loses her, however, to conniving drug dealer, Sportin’ Life, who whisks her off to New York where she’ll likely become a “sex worker” in today’s relativist terminology.
This is pretty strong stuff, particularly in the context of an earlier era, and the Gershwins® (composer George and his lyricist brother Ira) no doubt were persuaded to tone down some of the gamier material in their operatic slice of life before its Broadway opening in . But after all, love, murder, and mayhem are staples in opera, and nothing here is any worse than the torture scene in Puccini’s Tosca.
Yet there’s one important thing that sets Porgy apart from the majority of operas. In one of the greatest—and most quintessentially American—moments in opera, Porgy refuses to accept what looks like his defeat. Vowing to rescue Bess, he grabs his crutch and limps off to New York. Like Huck Finn, he’s going to “light out for the territories” to create a new beginning. It's an exhilarating finale.
Gershwin’s masterpiece has had a rough road to the widespread acceptance it now enjoys. From the time of its debut in the mid-1930s, Porgy was ridiculed by snarky, Eurocentric musicologists and critics who sneered at Gershwin’s Tin Pan Alley background and ridiculed what they viewed as his musical pretensions. The opera has had problems as well in the black community where some, at least, regarded it as inauthentic as well as racist.
In spite of its early rocky road, the score of Porgy—initially “Broadway-ized” with cuts and with spoken dialog to make it more palatable to backers—has been largely restored, including the incorporation of its original recitatives. The restored version began to find favor with operagoers in the 1970s when a complete version of Porgy was performed in Houston. It took the Met nearly a decade to do the same, and the WNO's 2005 production was this company's first.
So at last, Porgy is "on its way." 75 years after its Broadway debut, it's become what it always should have been, a beloved staple of American and international opera houses alike. And it’s easy to see why. Issues of race, class, and politics ultimately take a back seat to the irresistible, innovative, jazzy magnificence of Porgy’s score which includes not only the classic lullaby “Summertime,” but other signature numbers like “Bess, You Is My Woman Now,” “It Ain’t Necessarily So,” “I Got Plenty o’ Nothin,’” and plenty more. But are these arias or songs? Does it really matter now?
Since Porgy’s last appearance here in 2005—a run was also notable for being featured as the WNO’s first-ever live opera simulcast on the Mall—the performing version of Gershwin’s score was further restored in 2006 by John Mauceri who’s conducting these performances. Differences? The opening “Jazzbo Brown” sequence, often cut but seen here in 2005, has been cut again; some music has come back in; and other sections have been trimmed a bit. (Porgy's nifty "Buzzard Song" is gone, alas). I miss the energy of that lively Jazzbo opening. But dramatically, it doesn't add a lot to the show. (BTW, Jazzbo was also immortalized by Bessie Smith. Listen to Bessie singing "Jazzbo Brown from Memphis Town" here.)
I actually attended the 2005 WNO production on its opening night. While I don’t have a perfect memory, it seems that Mauceri’s current version of Porgy’s orchestration is darker, more percussive, and, if you will, more Africanized. It feels different, deeper, perhaps a little more desperate. Or maybe it's the Maestro's interpretation of the tempos and the mood. But none of this is a bad thing. It’s almost as if Mauceri has put the realism, the “verismo” back in to the show, giving the whole a more serious intent. In any event, it feels more real.
Paradoxically, this production also feels a bit more spiritual. Catfish Row is the kind of downtrodden inner-city community that, almost defensively, draws immense strength from the Christian religion. Jesus, at least, who once walked among the poor, understands what their lives are like. And he promises never to desert them in their time of need. In this production, you can literally feel the waves of religious passion, particularly when its lively chorus is in action.
Residents of Catfish Row pray for deliverance
from the hurricane.
Speaking of that WNO chorus.... As in its 2005 production, the heart and soul of this version is its large, all-local chorus, including the soloists in the opera’s several bit parts. Porgy’s chorus portrays the neighbors, eccentrics, and ordinary folks who make up Catfish Row while also employing them functionally as a classic Greek chorus that provides commentary on the action.
The 2010 chorus members seem to have bonded as family here, and the warmth and affection was palpable on opening night. With each successive entrance, they welcomed the audience into their world with an openness and an intimacy that I have rarely seen on stage.Their singing was generally proud and clear, save for the occasional moment when they were positioned too far back on stage.
Contributing to this sense of family was the return of several 2005 cast members as soloists in this 2010 edition. In Saturday’s opening performance, these included Morenike Fadayomi (Bess in both productions), Terry Cook (Crown), Jermaine Smith (Sportin’ Life), and Alyson Cambridge (Clara).
Eric Owens' Porgy. No defeat. No surrender.
Saturday’s soloists were at the top of their game. Heading up the cast was bass-baritone Eric Owens as Porgy. I had the good fortune years ago to interview Owens when he was a young up-and-comer at the Wolf Trap Opera. Even then his voice was imposing. That voice has not changed, in a way. But it has grown, deepened, and become more authoritative. His diction is perfect, his self-assurance admirable, generating a quiet strength for his character. He owned the stage on Saturday night, yet never upstaged his fellow cast members. He’s a gentleman and a star. Everyone in the room could feel it Saturday evening.
Reprising her earlier appearance as Bess, soprano Morenike Fadayomi turned in a very interesting interpretation of her troubled character. Her 2010 Bess is weak, vulnerable. She longs to be a better person, but is filled with self-loathing, convinced she’ll always fall in the end for the brutality of Crown, the power of “happy dust,” or whatever temptation comes her way. This vulnerability is expressed in her voice, in her short, sometimes quivering phrasing, and in her spasmodic, drug induced gesturing when she's en route to another high. It’s a brave, strong, daring performance that intentionally sacrifices some vocal heroics on the altar of realism.
Also turning in fine performances were bass Terry Cook as the surly, id-driven Crown, and tenor Jermaine Smith in a reprise of his flip, utterly amoral 2005 Sportin’ Life. If anything, Smith was even more joyously unpleasant this time around, adding odd, Michael Jackson-like manic tics and dance moves to his already weird character. The audience got seriously into it.
The WNO orchestra—backed up in the hurricane sequence by a thunder machine and a battery of percussion—turned in a spunky, genuinely authentic performance under the inspired baton of John Mauceri who meticulously liberates the jazzy joy, savage passion, and brutal dissonance that have always pulsed within Gershwin’s highly distinctive and very American score.
Rating: *** ½ (Three and one-half stars.)
For tickets ($25-300) and information, visit WNO’s website.
Note: I'm going to try to catch WNO's second cast for Porgy sometime this week. I'd never been able to do that in the daily Times due to limited space, something I've long regretted. "Second casts" in opera aren't really second casts. They're different casts that alternate with the "first casts." This way, neither set of soloists will run out of steam during a long, concentrated run like this one of Porgy and Bess. In reality, both casts in such a production tend to be equally good, but, of course, different in terms of interpretation, emphasis, and vocal shaping. It seems quite unfair to review the opening night cast but not the other guys, so i'll give it a shot this week if I can squeeze in a performance. UPDATE: Alas, schedule didn't permit me to catch the second cast. Better planning next time is in order.
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