Oy! Putting together an opera is not for the squeamish. It takes a very special breed of conductor to specialize in this particular art form and my hat’s off to them.
I’ve known about my upcoming run of Porgy & Bess for over two years now, and it has taken this long to get things on track. Preparing for taking two months out of one’s life for a single project has a profound impact on family life and orchestral schedule. That certainly will be interesting on all ends. There is also dealing with an unfamiliar entity – the Opera de Lyon. I’ve never worked with them but I’ve worked in opera houses, enough to know that they are just…….. different.
It took over a year of monthly pleading for the scores to show up. They’re rental and so you just can’t come up with one at will. I suspect that it takes a while for negotiations between opera houses and entities like the Gershwin estate. Then there’s the minor little question of casting. This is Porgy & Bess after all and putting it on comes with strings attached. That would be one thing if this was happening in the States, but this if the middle of France. You’ve got to find the entire cast and you have to find a chorus of 16 black singers to supplement the regular chorus. It seems that there aren’t that many of The Folk in the opera chorus. Somehow I wasn’t very surprised to find that out. This has interesting repercussions on the Director’s side. How will the chorus be used? I’m sure I’ll find out. Oh, and by the way – who are the Directors? They are José Montalvo and Dominique Hervieu, and it seems that they are inventive and have great senses of humor. I think it will be very fun to work with them.
There was, however, the slightly surprising email I received a few months ago basically saying “we’re thinking about who we would like to sing Bess.” Considering that the opera is called Porgy AND Bess, and that rehearsals were going to start in about 5 months, I thought it a very good idea that perhaps we should cast that role and maybe right now please? But the opera world is different – casting seems to happen at any time, whether months or years ahead. It’s odd and a little unnerving, but this is the way it happens. None-the-less, the wonderful Janice Chandler-Eteme will be our Bess. Here’s Derrick Lawrence showing that he’s a lot more than Porgy.
As with any opera there’s also the question of cuts. This is a running problem with this opera and the arguments are passionate on all sides. While contemplating these I remembered hearing a piece on NPR about this very topic. The culprit was John Mauceri and the Nashville Symphony (Viva Giancarlo!). His cuts, which he says he got off of Gershwin’s own score, make the opera much tighter than usual. The Buzzard song is gone, as is the anti-Sportin’ Life rap. There are considerable changes in scenes, especially in Acts II and III. Frankly this all makes a lot of sense to me, and so I proposed them to the artistic team.
The three weeks of stunned silence that ensued were not very reassuring. Then came an email – the Directors agreed but wanted to put back in 3 small cuts, strictly for dramatic reasons. So what this means is that this just might be the first fully staged production of Porgy and Bess to essentially hew to Gershwin’s own cuts in 70 years!!!
Nothing left to do but study the scores and find a place to stay for two months. At least that’s the theory.
Next post: Musical musings on Porgy & Bess
Perhaps Lyon has a Hotel du Catfish Row for you to hang your hat for two months? Bonne chance en France! You will surely enjoy it as the days and weeks progress.
The Dallas Opera is right in the middle of its performances of Porgy…. I saw it on Tuesday night. Very good production and performances. Both the Buzzard song and the “anti-Sporting Life” comments were included. It makes a long evening, no matter how interesting it is! I am looking forward to hearing your comments on the music and production. BTW, the conductor for this production is Wayne Marshall, stage director Hope Clark, Porgy- Gordon Hawkins, Bess – Indira Mahajan, Serena – Angela Renee Simpson (fabulous!)
Bill
I was under the impression that when “P & B” is done in America the Estate of George Gershwin requires that all singers be African-American but when it is done abroad they relax the rules. Is this not true?
I thought that the casting restrictions applied to US productions only – no?
We have Porgy coming to SF next season, which will be interesting!
Actually, that was my impression as well, but the folks at Lyon seem to want to really put together a production that follows Gershwin’s original directives, at least when it comes to casting. I’m very curious to see the production itself…… might be very interesting.
Bill
I will try to see if my friend, Anne Brown in Norway is accessible. I believe she has Parkinson’s Disease and is not handling e-mails as she had been. Clearly, as the first Bess chosen by Gershwin, she would be able to answer the questions of cuts.
I am the Nashville Symphony music librarian who created the special set of parts that adhere to the cuts in Gershwin’s own score from 70 years ago. It took an enormous amount of hours to create this set, but we were assured by European American Music that they would hold this set apart from the regular Porgy and Bess parts, keeping in all the changes, and rent it only to those who are interested in doing this version. Hopefully the Lyon opera company has located this set. (These not only contains cuts, but a couple of different transitions, and additions, including a “symphony of sounds” for the chorus.) If there are any questions about this, please feel free to contact me.
Wilson Ochoa, Principal Music Librarian, Nashville Symphony