{"id":1557,"date":"2019-10-13T23:22:25","date_gmt":"2019-10-14T03:22:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/?p=1557"},"modified":"2019-10-13T23:22:33","modified_gmt":"2019-10-14T03:22:33","slug":"is-porgy-a-stereotype-take-three","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/2019\/10\/is-porgy-a-stereotype-take-three.html","title":{"rendered":"Is Porgy a “Stereotype”? — Take Three"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Kevin Deas<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Kevin Deas, the exceptional bass-baritone who is the anonymous \u201cPorgy\u201d of my previous blog<\/a><\/strong>, has written to me at greater length about singing the part \u2013 and the importance of the view \u201cfrom below.\u201d He says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBeing on my knees for my first staged Porgy <\/em>was revelatory. Not only was it the first time that I\u2019d sung the complete role, it was that perspective that was, in particular, very profound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019d sung the concert version (comfortably erect) 10s of times. I didn\u2019t fully appreciate the character. Now when I sing extended concert versions, I try to incorporate that perspective. I often ask to sing the duet sitting. Bess standing, passionate, baffled, next to the cripple (not someone merely indisposed). That positioning alone portends the unlikely success of this pairing. When she kneels towards the end (as in the production I was in) she acquiesces and inhabits his low-lying, sweaty (probably smelly) existence. It makes the desperate nature of their circumstance more sympathetic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBeing on his knees also makes Porgy\u2019s plight that much more compelling for the audience. The interpretation necessarily becomes more nuanced. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs the performance starts, the daunting prospect of being on one\u2019s knees for nearly three hours puts one in a specific emotional space. Hearing the beauty of Gershwin\u2019s musical adoration (as the orchestra plays the ‘Porgy motif’) as I enter on the cart gives me comfort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBefore I discovered inline knee braces, with gel padding, I could peel a layer of skin off of my knees from the constant burn after an extended tour. The most difficult scene was kneeing my way across the stage to bring down Crown.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kevin \u2013 with whom I have been privileged to perform the spirituals of Harry Burleigh <\/a><\/strong>for a dozen years \u2013 is the most mellifluous Porgy I know. How I wish he had an opportunity to record it. You can see and hear him sing \u201cI got plenty o\u2019 nuttin\u2019\u201d and \u201cBess you is my woman\u201d (with Angela Brown) in concert (in Moscow) here: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=GBRd_oHxFSc<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It occurs to me to add that no opera of comparable stature (with the possible exception of Wagner\u2019s Siegfried<\/em>) has been so disserved in performance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last Spring, teaching a graduate seminar on music and race at SUNY Purchase, I spent a full month exploring Porgy and B<\/em>ess with my students. Every one of them preferred DuBose Heyward\u2019s novel to Gershwin\u2019s opera. The reason is that they were new to the opera (except for some songs) \u2013 and there does not exist an adequate recording or film. We made do with Simon Rattle\u2019s studio-bound Porgy and Bess<\/em> and the disappointing San Francisco Opera DVD. There are recordings with various points of excellence, but none in which the casting, conducting, playing, and trims (this is an opera that must be abridged) add up.  I could not convey to my students a full, true impression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PS — Another memorable email, from the prominent American historian Allen Guelzo, in response to my American Scholar<\/em> review of Porgy <\/em>at the Met: “In my mind, I step back and see Gershwin against what Thomson and Copland were writing then, and suddenly it comes to life, and makes them look like over-dressed primas.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kevin Deas, the exceptional bass-baritone who is the anonymous \u201cPorgy\u201d of my previous blog, has written to me at greater length about singing the part \u2013 and the importance of the view \u201cfrom below.\u201d He says: \u201cBeing on my knees for my first staged Porgy was revelatory. Not only was it the first time that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1557","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2QLHN-p7","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1557"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1566,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1557\/revisions\/1566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}