Arts & Entertainment

Rhapsody In Opera

Gershwin's melodic Porgy and Bess returns to MOT.

Bill Carroll

Special to the Jewish News

S

hortly after Jewish
composer George
Gershwin's Porgy
and Bess opened in Boston
in 1935, his first biographer,
Isaac Goldberg, wrote: "Why the
Jew of the North (born Jacob
Gershowitz) should take up the
song of the southern Negro and
fuse it into a typically American
product is an involved questiow"
The question hadn't been sat-
isfactorily answered by the time
Gershwin died of a brain tumor
two years later at age 39. Perhaps
it doesn't really matter. While
the opera has been condemned
for what some consider to be its
racial stereotypes, Porgy and
Bess has became what is argu-
ably the most important and
most beloved American opera of
the 20th century. With 700 sheets
of some of his most memorable
music, it was Gershwin's most
ambitious work, and "he always
marveled that he had created it:'
said Goldberg.
Detroit area audiences will
have 10 chances to marvel at
Gershwin's masterpiece when
Porgy and Bess opens Michigan
Opera Theatre's 2006-2007 sea-
son on Saturday, Oct. 21, at the
Detroit Opera House, where it
continues through Nov. 5. It is
MOT's fifth production of Porgy
and Bess in its 36 seasons.
"Porgy and Bess is always a
very popular production, and
we've pulled out all the stops
to make this our most excit-
ing Porgy to date," said MOT

General Director David DiChiera.
"We'll have an expanded run of
10 shows to meet the expected
ticket demand."
Gershwin, a strong force in
the musical theater world in the
1920s and early 1930s, was the
son of Russian immigrants; he
lived in 28 different places as a
youngster in New York City while
his father moved from job to job.
The composer became enam-
ored with the idea of writing
Porgy and Bess after seeing
DuBose and Dorothy Heyward's
play Porgy in 1924, but he was
too busy to compose a musical
score for it until the mid-'30s.
Gershwin had tried a one-act
opera, Blue Monday, in 1922,
but it was unsuccessful (in fact,
Porgy and Bess didn't realize
success until later productions
well after Gershwin's death.)
In an interesting side note,
Gershwin got the rights to Porgy
from DuBose Heyward after
outmaneuvering Al Jolson, who
wanted to star in his own musi-
cal version.
Gershwin's latest biographer,
Jewish author Howard Pollack,
credits Gershwin's radio show
sponsor, a chewing-gum laxative
called Feen-a-Mint, with sus-
taining the composer financially
so he could work on the opera.
"I'm skipping around — writ-
ing a bit here and a bit there ...
but it's all going to work out very
well;' Gershwin wrote Heyward,
who did the libretto, plus some
of the lyrics with Gershwin's
brother, Ira.
Pollack's 800-page biogra-
phy, George Gershwin: His

Life and Work (University of
California Press; $39.75) is due
out in December. A University
of Michigan graduate, Pollack
is a music history professor at
Houston University.

Jewish Chords
Gershwin, and Heyward had
spent part of 1933-34 on Folly
Island, near Heyward's native
Charleston, S.C., to observe the
sights and sounds of the "Gullah
Negroes of Catfish Row," where
the Porgy and Bess story is set.
Gershwin returned to New York
to finish the opera.
The story centers on Porgy,
a well-liked cripple, and Bess,
whom he has always loved, and
Porgy's attempts to rescue her
from her boyfriend-pimp Crown
and her drug dealer, Sportin' Life.
Using lavish staging rented
from the Houston Grand Opera,
the MOT production has 22
principal roles. Gordon Hawkins
reprises the role of Porgy, which
he performed in MOT's 1998
version. Alternating with him
will be Alvy Powell. Bess will
be sung by Lisa Daltirus, who
starred in the company's Aida
last April. Alternating with her
will be Janinah Burnett. Jubilant
Sykes will perform Sportin' Life.
Jewish actor-singer Fred
Buchalter of Troy plays the
coroner. He recently elicited big
laughs in the Jewish Ensemble
Theatre production of Hello
Muddah, Hello Fadduh!
Steven Mercurio will lead the
MOT Orchestra, and Roman
Terleckyj directs.
Combining traditional black

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October 19 2006

church music, chords
from Gershwin's Jewish
heritage and quintes-
sential American jazz,
the Porgy and Bess
score contains some of
the most melodic and
memorable songs in
all of opera, including
"Summertime,""I Got
Plenty 0' Nuttin',""It
Ain't Necessarily So:'
"Bess, You Is My Woman Now:'
and "I Loves You, Porgy."
MOT's other fall production
will be Rossini's comic opera
The Barber of Seville, which
runs Nov. 11-18 and features
opera's most beloved schemer,
Figaro.
The spring season will open
with Puccini's Turandot, April
21-29, set in ancient China
and featuring the famous aria
"Nessun Dorma." MOT then will
mount its first-ever production
of Mozart's 1782 opera The
Abduction From the Seraglio,
May 12-19, and conclude the
season with a romantic trag-
edy, Charles Gounod's Romeo
and Juliet, June 2-9. The latter
stars Jonathan Boyd and Dina
Kuznetsova, with Jewish director
Bernard Uzan. E

Top: Gordon Hawkins reprises

his role as Porgy at the Detroit
Opera House.

Bottom: A new Gershwin biog-
raphy by U-M grad Howard

Pollack comes out in December.

Performances of MOT's Porgy and Bess at the Detroit Opera

House are 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 21; 2:30 p.m. Sunday,
Oct. 22; 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, Oct.
25, 27-28; 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 29; 7:30 p.m. Thursday,
Friday and Saturday, Nov. 2-4, and 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 5.
Tickets: $28-$120. Tickets and information: (313) 237-7464
or www.MichiganOpera.org ; tickets also available through
TicketMaster at (248) 645-6666 or www.ticketmaster.com .

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