Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – The Gershwins’ PORGY AND BESS receives a sturdy new staging at the Met, led by the superb pairing of Eric Owens and Angel Blue

• By drediman
• October 5, 2019
• No Comments

Eric Owens and Angel Blue lead the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of the Gershwins’ “Porgy and Bess”. Photo by Ken Howard.

This afternoon, I caught a performance of the Metropolitan Opera’s new staging of the Gershwins’ 1935 American folk opera Porgy and Bess. The production launched the mighty opera company’s 2019-2020 season a few weeks ago, and it has immediately proven to be a popular and critical success. Although many of the remaining performances this fall are already sold out, fear not. The production returns to the Met’s repertory in January.

It’s great to see Porgy and Bess light up a major opera house again. For a number of years, the piece has veered towards legitimate theater. Indeed, over the past decade, I’ve seen renowned theater directors Trevor Nunn and Diane Paulus attempt to tackle the much-loved if somewhat unwieldy opera-and-musical-straddling work both in the West End and on Broadway, respectively (Audra McDonald’s fierce turn on Broadway was particularly memorable). The only other full scale major opera production of Porgy and Bess I’ve seen is Francesca Zambello’s excellent production, which I saw at both Chicago’s Lyric Opera and Washington National Opera.

Although I still prefer Ms. Zambello’s powerful, atmospheric, and more focused staging, James Robinson’s sturdy new production certainly gets the job done (I particularly took to Camille A. Brown’s soulful choreography). Leading the way in career-defining performances in the title roles are bass-baritone Eric Owens and soprano Angel Blue, who sing and embody their hefty characters exquisitely. In fact, neither has sounded better, and both dive into their characterizations with extraordinary commitment. Porgy and Bess is one of those rare operas that gives many performers a chance to shine, and the Met’s spectacular current cast does just that (kudos particularly to Denyce Graves’ Maria and Gold Schultz’s Clara, both fully realized creations). Under the baton of conductor David Robertson, the Met Orchestra gave George Gershwin’s masterpiece of a score an incisive but lush reading.

RECOMMENDED

PORGY AND BESS
Opera
The Metropolitan Opera
3 hours, 20 minutes (with one intermission)
In repertory through October 16 (returns to repertory in January)