Porgy & Bess

[fabrisse]

I had a belated Christmas gift of a matinee ticket to see Porgy and Bess yesterday at the Kennedy Center Opera House.

I was dead center in the fifth row. Seriously, I made eye contact with the conductor when he came out for the second act. The tickets were hella expensive, but it was the best gift she could have given me.

Sportin' Life was a good actor whose voice was too weak for the climax of "There's a Boat that's Leavin' Soon for New York." Bess was a little raw voiced for my taste.

But Serena broke my heart (hearing this song for the first time was the first time I ever cried in the theater and she made me cry again) with a gorgeous "My Man's Gone Now." Maria's "Friends with You, Lowlife?" was a nice little tour de force.

It struck me yesterday how Christian some of the imagery was. There are songs referencing God and Jesus throughout the opera, not just the obvious sermon of "It Ain't Necessarily So," but the simple prayer of Serena's "Doctor Jesus" and Porgy's quiet words, "When God made cripple, he make him lonely." One lovely touch was having Bess' new dress for the picnic that Maria hands her be Baptismal clothes.

It was a well thought out production with some beautiful moments and some stark ones. Clara's and Jake's drownings are acted out as the rest of the cast prays against the hurricane and the two coffins being carried across the stage afterward brought it home.

Comments

[snopes-faith.livejournal.com]

It sounds like a wonderful production and I'm really please you got to see it in such great seats! It's not actually a show I've ever seen performed but of course I know a lot of the better known songs. How did the cast do with "Summertime"?

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

The woman playing Clara (Allyson Cambridge) had a lovely voice. The conductor pointed out that Jake's lullaby "A Woman is a Sometime Thing" is intended to be sung at the same tempo, so "Summertime" was slightly faster than usual and "A Woman is..." was slightly slower. They both sounded fantastic. And Sportin' Life (Larry Hylton) did wonderfully with the physicality of "It Ain't Necessarily So."

It was glorious.

[eanja]

I was going to ask you about this. I've never seen it, though I've always wanted to.

That said, I'm now going to have to try very hard to forget who drowns if I ever do see it, since I didn't actually know anything about the plot till just this minute.

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

But operas always give you the libretto so you can figure out what's going on when it happens. That said, I've seen it before and I'd forgotten.

It was just lovely.

[eanja]

I'm glad you liked it. It's one of the very few operas I really do want to see at some point.

(And you're right, of course. I'd have read through the whole plot synopsis while waiting for the overture.)