17 minute read
PORGY AND BESS
THE GERSHWINS®' Porgy and Bess®
By GEORGE GERSHWIN, DUBOSE and DOROTHY HEYWARD and IRA GERSHWIN
July 1 7:30 PM July 3 2:00 PM July 8 7:30 PM July 14 7:30 PM July 16 7:30 PM July 21 7:30 PM July 24 2:00 PM
First performance: Colonial Theatre, Boston; September 30, 1935 Company Premiere Performed in English with English supertitles
Featuring international opera star Simon Estes as Lawyer Frazier in a performance dedicated to Arthur Woodley
A new production made possible by a production gift from the Lauridsen Family Foundation The chorus for this production was made possible by a gift from Linda and Tom Koehn Projected titles design by Kelley Rourke originally for The Glimmerglass Festival
PORGY AND BESS is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Tams-Witmark LLC The worldwide copyrights in the music of George and Ira Gershwin® are licensed by the Gershwin Family. GERSHWIN is a registered trademark and service mark of Gershwin Enterprises. PORGY AND BESS is a registered trademark and service mark of Porgy and Bess Enterprises.
THE STORY Catfish Row, a neighborhood of Charleston, South Carolina PART I
The inhabitants of Catfish Row relax after a hard day’s work. Clara sings a lullaby to her baby. Sportin’ Life, Clara’s husband Jake, and the men are playing craps under the disapproving eye of the religious Serena. Jake sings a lullaby of his own to the baby. The disabled beggar Porgy arrives to join the game when Crown and his partner Bess appear. Crown loses the dice game, starts a fight, and kills Robbins. He runs off to hide, telling Bess he’ll be back for her. The community shuns Bess. Sportin’ Life offers to take her to New York, but she refuses. Only Porgy is sympathetic: He offers her shelter and protection, she accepts. In a meeting room, Robbins’s widow, Serena, leads the mourners at his funeral. A collection is taken to meet the cost of the burial. Bess, through Porgy, offers Serena a contribution. The Detective and officers arrive and accuse Peter, the Honeyman, of the murder, and despite protestations, he is arrested. Serena convinces the undertaker to bury Robbins for less than his fee. Bess leads everyone in an exultant spiritual. Jake and the other fishermen are mending nets. Porgy compares his life to theirs. Sportin’ Life enters, but before he can peddle any of his “happy dust,” Maria, the matriarch of Catfish Row, chases him away. “Lawyer” Frazier sells Bess a divorce, though she and Crown were never married. Everyone prepares to leave for a church picnic on Kittiwah Island. Sportin’ Life asks Bess again to come to New York with him and tries to give her more dope; she refuses. Porgy chases him off. They reflect on their newfound happiness. He insists that Bess should go to the picnic without him and is content for the first time to have the love of a woman.
INTERMISSION PART II
On Kittiwah Island, Sportin’ Life describes his cynical view of religion to the revelers. Serena chastises them for being taken in by his stories. The steamboat whistle blows, and everyone starts to pack. Bess hurries along until Crown, who has been hiding on the island since the murder, calls out to her. He wants Bess to come with him, but she explains that she now has a life with Porgy. Crown forces her to stay with him. In Catfish Row, fishermen leave for a day’s work at sea despite a storm warning. Bess is heard talking deliriously from Porgy’s room, feverish and ill since returning from Kittiwah Island. Peter, released from police custody that morning, advises Porgy to take her to hospital. Serena prays for her recovery and is answered: Bess emerges, free of the fever. Bess wants to stay with Porgy but when Crown returns, she’ll be forced to go back to him. Porgy tells her that she doesn’t have to go with Crown. He and Bess reaffirm their love for each other. The winds rise and the hurricane bell sounds. The community cowers in the meeting room and prays for deliverance. Crown arrives, seeking shelter and looking for Bess. She insists that she belongs to Porgy alone. He mocks Porgy and the frightened townspeople and counters their prayers with a vulgar song. Clara sees Jake’s boat overturned and rushes out to save her husband. Bess calls for one of the men to go after her. Crown is the only one to respond. The denizens grieve for those who have been lost: Jake, Clara and, possibly, Crown. Sportin’ Life mocks their weeping, and hints that Crown is still alive. Bess lulls Clara’s baby to sleep. That night, Crown steals in and approaches Porgy’s door. Porgy is ready and strikes the first blow. He kills Crown. The detective returns to Catfish Row, accompanied by the coroner, to investigate Crown’s murder. They go to Porgy’s room and order him to come in to identify Crown’s body. Porgy refuses and has to be dragged. In Porgy’s absence, Sportin’ Life tries to convince Bess that Porgy will be locked up for certain, and attempts to lure her away to a new life. When Bess spurns him, he forces some dope on her and leaves more outside her door. A week later, the inhabitants of Catfish Row greet each other. Porgy returns from jail in a jubilant mood. He is unaware of his friends’ discomfort as he calls out for Bess. Heartbroken, thinking Bess is dead, he soon discovers she is alive and has gone to New York with Sportin’ Life. Porgy decides to follow: He cannot live without Bess.
DIRECTOR'S NOTES by Tazewell Thompson, Stage Director
The times are uncertain and forbidden on many levels for most of us these days. A rise of all kinds of “isms.” We are challenged, during this divisive atmosphere, to stay close and supportive. Here’s hoping that America will have the wisdom and ferocity to plow under its recent oversights and commit to building another kind of world—a world of intentionality and wholeness and beauty and reverence and respect for the differences among peoples that add richness, variety and diversity to our lives.
Here’s hoping that in our 21st century, each of us will open ourselves a little further into awareness, into the capacity to attend, to listen, to see and feel what is going on inside and outside of ourselves: to become part of the “others,” those that are immediately around us, and those who are further off; lost, ignored, forgotten.
Within the heart of this threatened darkness, Des Moines Metro Opera—this great structure of unrelenting affirmation and inclusion, year after year for 50 seasons!—through fierce determination, their courage and positive energy; through their immeasurable ability to attract the finest vocal talents, DMMO has provided memorable moments of illumination, joy, synthesis, catharsis, human exploration, and celebration. Let us never undervalue what our vocal artists do for us, for they are the alchemists who alter material things into things of the spirit; tug and shake our hearts and minds; transform us into the lives, into the shoes of others so that we may more clearly see ourselves. With the insightful choice of Porgy and Bess, the 50-year DMMO mission-journey for truth and beauty (let us not forget entertainment) continues. The outrageously spectacular voices of the assembled Porgy and Bess company representing the denizens of Catfish Row explodes the intimacy of the Blank theatre with a compelling story of indelible individuals and a hard scrabble tight-knit community that finds strength in shared spirituality, compassion and interdependence.
Supported by Gershwin’s magnificent jazz-infused score, radiant chorales, blues, spirituals, Tin Pan Alley, prayers, dirges, love ballads, chants, wails, shouts and cries of street vendors—songs of pain, outrage, confusion and courage, Iowans will witness, close-up, the kaleidoscopic life experiences of Catfish Row.
Porgy and Bess reminds us that we are bound together in community, by membership in our species: human. The human that wants America moving forward to the inclusive, enlightened, empathetic and compassionate human. The human who is hungry for peace and love.
Conductor MICHAEL ELLIS INGRAM * Stage Director TAZEWELL THOMPSON * Scenic Designer R. KEITH BRUMLEY Costume Designer HARRY NADAL * Lighting Designer ROBERT WIERZEL * Make-Up/Hair Designer KELLEN M. EASON * Chorus Director LISA HASSON Associate Conductor and Diction Coach RICHARD CORDOVA Musical Preparation TESSA HARTLE Second Associate Conductor DONALD LEE III * Assistant Stage Director CINDY C. OXBERRY * Fight Director RON PIRETTI * Chorus Pianist TAYLOR BURKHARDT * Stage Managers FRANCESCA MACBETH * LAUREN WICKETT *
* DMMO mainstage debut † Former DMMO Apprentice Artist ‡ Current DMMO Apprentice Artist or Ensemble Artist
CAST in order of vocal appearance Clara JACQUELINE ECHOLS * Mingo DAVID MORGANS SANCHEZ *‡ Sportin’ Life JERMAINE SMITH * Jake BLAKE DENSON * Serena LEAH HAWKINS * Robbins ERRIN DUANE BROOKS * Jim BRANDON BELL ‡ Peter ROLAND HAWKINS, II † Maria LUCIA BRADFORD * Porgy KEVIN DEAS * Crown NORMAN GARRETT Bess MICHELLE JOHNSON * Detective RICHARD CORDOVA Lily IMARA MILES *‡ Policeman JONATHAN PATTON *‡ Undertaker PATRICK BLACKWELL * Annie GEDEANE GRAHAM *‡ Lawyer Frazier SIMON ESTES * Nelson SANKARA HAROUNA *‡ Strawberry Woman LYNNESHA CRUMP * Crab Man DEMETRIOUS SAMPSON, JR. *‡ Coroner THADDEUS ENNEN ‡ Second Policeman KELLEN SCHRIMPER ‡ Chorus PAULE ABOITE * DIMERY ALEXIS *‡ ANTHONY D. ANDERSON *‡ ALYSSA BARNES ‡ BRANDON BELL ‡ JIHANNA CHARLTON-DAVIS † LYNNESHA CRUMP * BRIAN L. FENDERSON * DARIUS A. GILLARD *‡ VIVANA AURELIA GOODWIN *‡ GEDEANE GRAHAM *‡ CHANTELLE GRANT * MAKEDA D. HAMPTON * SANKARA HAROUNA *‡ TANYA HARRIS *‡ DARELL HAYNES * MAURIO HINES * DENIQUE ISAAC *‡ MARGUERITE JONES * ELARY MEDE *‡ IMARA MILES * TIMOTHY D. PARROTT * ISABEL RANDALL *‡ NAMAREA RANDOLPH-YOSEA *‡ OLIVIA ROMINIYI *‡ DEMETRIOUS SAMPSON, JR. *‡ DAVID MORGANS SANCHEZ *‡ JEREMIAH SANDERS *‡ ROCKY EUGENIO SELLERS * JAIME SHARP *‡ JOSHUA THOMAS *‡ VINCE WALLACE * ALAN WILLIAMS *‡ CHARLES WILLIAMSON * ARTEGA WRIGHT *‡
Supernumerary Children KAITLYN GIPSON * CRUZE LOVE * GEORGE LOVE, III * MICHAEL MCPHERSON * DEMERRIA RAMBO *
KEVIN DEAS
MICHELLE JOHNSON
LEAH HAWKINS
NORMAN GARRETT
JERMAINE SMITH
JACQUELINE ECHOLS
BLAKE DENSON
LUCIA BRADFORD
SIMON ESTES
REFLECTIONS ON THE COMPLEXITIES BEHIND LOVING PORGY AND BESS
BY DR. NAOMI ANDRÉ, SCHOLAR-IN-RESIDENCE
THERE ARE MANY THINGS to love about the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess. Most of the tunes are already familiar through jazz standards (“Summertime,” “I Got Plenty o’ Nuttin’,” “Bess, You Is My Woman Now”) and George Gershwin’s music has that perfect combination of an undulating Puccini-esque lyricism with catchy syncopations that capture the rhythms of the English language.
The music achieves many things at once: it involves full-out operatic singing, yet still has moments that feel like spontaneous outpourings of emotion. Serena’s “My Man’s Gone Now” at the funeral of her husband in Act I showcases the singer’s virtuosity and brings on the chills of a new widow’s wail. At the same time, the “Six Simultaneous Prayers” chorus during the hurricane in Act II makes you feel like you have walked into a Black church vigil.
The creators’ insistence on a Black cast makes going to Porgy and Bess a unique experience, and one especially exciting for Black audiences, for it is still very rare to have the chance to see so many Black people on the operatic stage—and in the audience. Yet Porgy and Bess is also deeply troubling. The most disheartening part of the opera is the hopelessness of the characters’ fates. It is distressing to see the drinking, gambling, murder, and sexual assault that take place. Even more devastating is that the characters we cheer for—the young loving family of Clara and Jake, the rehabilitated Bess—end up dead or broken by the end. In the finale, when Porgy sings “Oh Lawd, I’m On My Way,” we know that he—a poor, disabled Black man—will never make it to New York. Although the residents of Catfish Row sing about the “Heav’nly Lan’” of promise and opportunity, we know they will most likely not see it in their lifetimes.
Porgy and Bess was written in a historical moment that saw significant hope as well as deep racial conflict. After the Civil War, during Reconstruction, post-Reconstruction and beyond, Jim Crow practices developed into laws, and lynching became a regular threat. With the Great Migration of poor southern Blacks to the north and west for jobs and better prospects, Harlem along with other key cities (such as Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, and Los Angeles, among others) emerged as places for great optimism and accomplishments.
The Harlem Renaissance, and similar movements in the aforementioned destination cities, were fueled by the first generations of African Americans who were born free after slavery and had greater opportunities to choose where they lived. Publications such as W.E.B. DuBois’s The Souls of Black Folk (1903) and Alain Locke’s The New Negro (1925) outlined a new construction of Black identity in the US and how a post-slavery society
could thrive with members from all races. There was an energy and excitement for Black achievement in the arts—literature, music, dance and theater all had a place in the racial uplift movement.
Gershwin wrote an opera in his own style, on his own terms. He called Porgy and Bess an American “folk opera,” a designation open to interpretation and one that has caused much speculation. In using this term, Gershwin brought together the connection to the people—in this case Black people—and the elevated genre of opera. The term “folk” had varied meanings in the beginning of the 20th century, as the development of folklore societies in Europe and the US were founded to preserve oral traditions not written down. These efforts were bolstered during the Depression in the 1930s when the US government sponsored several folk-related projects (such as the Federal Music Project). “Folk” also had a special resonance in the Black community. In The Souls of Black Folk, DuBois centered this term in his discourse and then began each chapter with a few bars of a Spiritual in music notation, thus linking the uplift of the race with the music of the people.
Though Gershwin wrote his own music in the style of Spirituals (and did not use authentic Spirituals) in his opera, he and DuBose Heyward spent a month on Folly Island, off the coast of South Carolina, to be with African American people and learn about their Gullah culture. One of the most complex issues around the work is the representation of the characters’ speech and the use of a language meant to express the dialogue and thoughts of the residents of Catfish Row. In a time when minstrelsy- radio shows (such as Amos ’n’ Andy) and other media— where white actors, singers, and novelists rely on negative stereotypes of Black people are shunned—today Porgy and Bess can sound awkward and dated. But with recent controversies around the use and importance of what is variously called Black English, Ebonics, and African American Vernacular English, the quest for representing Black culture in ways other than using Standard English has resonance.
The principle of linguistic subordination where language variabilities associated with socio-economically oppressed groups are viewed as linguistic deficits rather than neutral linguistic variations, helps explain how attitudes about such language differences come about. Successful precedents in the beginning of the 20th century go back to the poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar, as well as to the art songs, Spirituals, and choral arrangements by John Wesley Work, Jr. (as well as his son John Wesley Work, III), Nathaniel Dett, Hall Johnson, Undine Smith Moore, and Eva Jessye—who was a composer as well as the choral director for the first production of Porgy and Bess. What becomes tricky is when someone outside of the subordinated group (in this case the Black community)
Historic Black composers Scott Joplin (top), Harry Lawrence Freeman (center) and William Grant Still (bottom). approximates the structure and syntax of the nonstandard version of the language, and the result sounds and feels uncomfortable to those who know the true tradition. In this way, the language choices made by Porgy and Bess’s creators, however well-meant they may have been, are problematic.
Such themes present a microcosm of how representation is fraught in Porgy and Bess. George and Ira Gershwin, alongside DuBose and Dorothy Heyward, gave us a compelling picture of Black southern life that by contrast, and in an uncommon practice for the time, was required to be portrayed by Black performers in true-to-color casting (not blackface) when staged in the US. This provided Black artists—from a wide spectrum of opera singers to the Broadway dancer John William “Bubbles” Sublett (the original Sportin’ Life)—the opportunity to perform on stage to larger and wealthier audiences.
Black artists and composers from the early part of the 20th century did not have the economic and social capital of the Heywards and Gershwins to pull off a venture like Porgy and Bess—one that would have incredible staying power. Recent scholarship is helping to reveal a new historiography of Blackness in opera by uncovering the narratives of Black opera impresarios, such as the Theodore Drury Grand Opera Company that produced a few operas in the first decades of the century, and Mary Cardwell Dawson’s music school and National Negro Opera Company that mounted productions in the 1940s to early 1960s.
Black composers (such as Scott Joplin, Harry Lawrence Freeman and William Grant Still) wrote operas that are continuing to resurface today. They were accomplished in the Western European tradition and wrote in a musical style that expands our understanding of how Black culture was represented in American opera during the first decades of the 20th century. Black composers wrote operas spanning the 20th century; however, they had very difficult times getting their works performed. It is only recently that we see these earlier operas getting performed along with a generation of living composers including Anthony Davis, Rhiannon Giddens, Adolphus Hailstork, Nkeiru Okoye, Terence Blanchard and several others.
Going back to the first half of the 19th century, we have information about Black operatic singers from Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield (c. 1809-1876) who toured in the US and sang for Queen Victoria in early 1850s England and Sissieretta Jones (c. 1868-1933), another opera singer who gave recitals and started her own singing troupe in the 1890s through 1915. It was not until 1955 when Marian Anderson sang at the Metropolitan Opera that the genre began to desegregate, and we saw more Black singers and other people of color on stage.
In this respect Porgy and Bess played an important role even though it took a while after its first performance in 1935 (and Gershwin’s untimely death in 1937) to be accepted in the opera repertory. With the Gershwin estate committed to having true-to-color casting when the work is staged in the US and the important performance by Houston Grand Opera in 1976, Porgy and Bess has played a critical role in giving Black singers access to opera houses.
Celebrated Iowa-born bass-baritone Simon Estes is written into this history for creating Porgy at its 50th anniversary when it was first performed at the Metropolitan Opera in 1985. In the first generation of Black male singers who have had stellar international operatic careers, Estes is part of a legacy that connects the past, present and future as opera embraces social justice through the way it elegantly projects human emotions and compellingly conveys relatable characterizations.
Over time, people have thought of Porgy and Bess as the Great American Opera, as well as a frustrating collection of stereotypes that emphasize a vision of Black people who speak in dialect-ridden English, drink and gamble too much, and have a loose moral code. And to some extent, both assessments are true. This opera presents a heritage that has given important opportunities to Black performing artists. Porgy and Bess showcases intensely human emotions that lead to both great passion and heart-wrenching devastation. With all of these contrasting features, it is music that touches us and gets under our skin. And this is what makes Gershwin’s opera so easy to love and so hard to stay mad at.
NAOMI ANDRÉ is an associate professor in the departments of African and Afroamerican Studies and Women’s Studies at the University of Michigan. She is the author of Black Opera: History, Power, Engagement and is DMMO’s inaugural Scholar-in-Residence. Important Black opera singers Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield (top), Sissieretta Jones (center) and Marian Anderson (bottom).
