{"id":1799,"date":"2020-07-13T01:04:34","date_gmt":"2020-07-13T05:04:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/?p=1799"},"modified":"2020-07-13T01:04:37","modified_gmt":"2020-07-13T05:04:37","slug":"porgy-and-the-white-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/2020\/07\/porgy-and-the-white-police.html","title":{"rendered":"Porgy and the White Police"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/B3BQbAv_IJI?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/div><figcaption>Lawrence Tibbett sings Porgy (1935)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Though a prominent British reviewer of what became the hit Met production of&nbsp;<em>Porgy and Bess<\/em> called Gershwin\u2019s landmark 1935 opera \u201ca period piece,\u201d it loudly resounds today. Consider the first act confrontation between a white detective and a black community.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cRace is critical to Gershwin\u2019s conception,\u201d observes the Gershwin scholar Mark Clague in the most recent \u201cPostClassical\u201d<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wwfm.org\/post\/postclassical-gershwin-roundtable-porgy-and-bess-american-paris-cuban-overture\">\u00a0<strong>webcast,<\/strong><\/a> pursuing a Gershwin thread originating with our film\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=NR_2b3_EpY0\">\u201cThe Russian Gershwin.\u201d<\/a><\/strong> <em>Porgy,<\/em> Clague continues, \u201cis an activist work about race.\u201d In act one, the vibrancy of Catfish Row is silenced by the entrance of a white policeman who speaks rather than sings. The caustic demeanor of this character provokes discomfort \u2013 both for black victims of the law onstage, and for present-day audiences. But the invariable practice of exaggerating the Detective\u2019s racism backfires in performance \u2013 he would be more unsettling if for once he was not rendered as a cartoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To hear what Clague is talking about, go to 36:46 of our\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wwfm.org\/post\/postclassical-gershwin-roundtable-porgy-and-bess-american-paris-cuban-overture\"><strong>webcast<\/strong> <\/a>and sample Trevor Nunn&#8217;s famous Glyndebourne production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Conrad L. Osborne, whose indispensable <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/conradlosborne.com\/2019\/11\/03\/notes-on-porgy\/\"><em>Porgy<\/em> <\/a>blog<\/strong> I proceeded to quote on the air, comments:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn&nbsp;<em>Porgy<\/em>, the character who can most reliably be counted on to come across as a stereotype is the Detective. . . . It\u2019s not that The Detective will ever exactly win our sympathies. . . . But consider his job. Two murders are committed on Catfish Row. He&nbsp;<em>does&nbsp;<\/em>need witnesses, and while the community is willing to \u2018fess up about the fugitive Crown, it closes ranks around Porgy. The Detective\u2019s suspicions about who saw what are entirely justified. When he accuses first Serena, then Porgy, of lying, he\u2019s right, and he\u2019s seen all this before. The man given this assignment is not going to be Mr. Sensitivity, but if played by an actor of weight who\u2019s taking his job and the circumstances seriously, his scenes can have a lifelike texture. His work would then have to be countered with much more grown-up acting than I\u2019ve ever seen done by his fellow thespians in these sequences, with their musical-comedy innocence-feigning shtick. That&nbsp;<em>is&nbsp;<\/em>stereotyping, and embarrassing, not as much for people of color as for professional singing actors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A flood of careless commentary has deplored \u201cstereotypes\u201d in&nbsp;<em>Porgy and Bess<\/em>. Osborne writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere is no way . . . that one can take in the words, music, and dramatic functions of any of the more prominent characters [of&nbsp;<em>Porgy and Bess<\/em>] and label them stereotypes. They\u2019re fleshed-out, living people. Nonetheless, they have been vulnerable to attack from the not-good-for-African-Americans p.o.v., which from its more extreme angles objects to the very presence of unpleasant or even morally conflicted characters. It\u2019s tantamount to saying you can\u2019t represent black people, disadvantaged people, poor people, unless it\u2019s to ennoble them, as in a patriotic pageant or on a valorizing mural. That\u2019s not a valid artistic principle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Certainly performers are partly to blame here. John W. Bubbles, the original Sporting Life, insisted that this demonic character be \u2013 as with any competent Mephisto &#8212; \u201ccharming.\u201d Otherwise, Bess is greatly diminished when she succumbs to him. Today, Sporting Life\u2019s malignancy is incautiously savored. Can he instead charm?&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=7nvKSRUZU2o\"><strong>Here<\/strong> i<\/a>s Bubbles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But the chief obstacle to a truthful rendering of&nbsp;<em>Porgy and Bess<\/em> is the present-day compulsion to make Porgy more \u201cdignified.\u201d It\u2019s the same careless impulse that would make the Detective more evil. Once Porgy stands erect, on crutches, he can no longer undertake the opera\u2019s great trajectory of a cripple made whole.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you\u2019re interested in a memorably dignified Porgy, try Lawrence Tibbett, who was the first person to record Porgy\u2019s songs in the studio (under Gershwin\u2019s supervision), in 1935. As Osborne eloquently observes (6:27 of our <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wwfm.org\/post\/postclassical-gershwin-roundtable-porgy-and-bess-american-paris-cuban-overture\">webcast<\/a><\/strong>), Tibbett was the supreme American operatic singing actor. He also happened to be white. On our webcast, Kevin Deas and George Shirley share impressions of Tibbett\u2019s Porgy \u2013 and also reflect on the status of African-American opera singers today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We are still taking the measure of&nbsp;<em>Porgy and Bess<\/em> -\u2013 and the same (alas) goes for Gershwin generally. In his lifetime, he was dismissed by American-born classical musicians (but not those born abroad) as a gifted dilettante. I call this \u201cthe Gershwin threat.\u201d It is over now &#8212; I call that \u201cthe Gershwin moment.\u201d It\u2019s ongoing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In our <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wwfm.org\/post\/postclassical-gershwin-roundtable-porgy-and-bess-american-paris-cuban-overture\">webcast<\/a>, <\/strong>Mark Clague has something new to say about\u00a0<em>An American in Paris<\/em> -\u2013 by citing details in the original, unabridged version of this fabulous score, he explores the sophistication of Gershwin\u2019s manipulation of musical structure and texture. After that, Angel Gil-Ord\u00f3\u00f1ez takes a fresh look at Gershwin\u2019s irresistible\u00a0<em>Cuban<\/em> Overture, and discovers compositional subtleties arising from the composer\u2019s investigation of both Caribbean and Andalusion strains.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gil-Ord\u00f3\u00f1ez\u2019s own performance of the\u00a0<em>Cuban<\/em> Overture (at 21:56 of part two of our <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wwfm.org\/post\/postclassical-gershwin-roundtable-porgy-and-bess-american-paris-cuban-overture\">webcast<\/a><\/strong>) is nothing short of revelatory.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We still await a comparable performance of&nbsp;<em>Porgy and Bess<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>A LISTENER\u2019S GUIDE TO THE WEBCAST<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>PART ONE:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>1:22 \u2013 Lawrence Tibbett sings \u201cI got plenty o\u2019 nuttin\u2019\u201d (1935)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>4:52 \u2013 Gershwin and race: \u201cThe Abraham Lincoln of Negro music\u201d (J. Rosamond Johnson)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>6:27 \u2013 Conrad L. Osborne on Tibbett (\u201cThe foremost singing actor America has produced\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>10:17 \u2013 Tibbett sings \u201cOh Bess, oh where\u2019s my Bess?\u201d (1935)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>13:43 \u2013 George Shirley and Kevin Deas on white baritones singing Porgy (\u201cmusic belongs to everybody\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>21: 00 \u2013 The critic Irving Kolodin opines that George Shirley \u201cdoesn\u2019t look the part of a French nobleman\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>29:02 \u2013 Tibbett sings \u201cDe Glory Road\u201d (1935)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>34:12 \u2013 Mark Clague on white policemen in&nbsp;<em>Porgy and Bess<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>44:40 &#8212; George Shirley sings Mozart: \u201cUn aura amorosa\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>48:23 \u2013 Kevin Deas sings Bach: \u201cIch habe genug\u201d with PostClassical Ensemble conducted by Angel&nbsp;Gil-Ord\u00f3\u00f1ez&nbsp;(Igor Leschishin, oboe)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>PART WO:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>1:46 \u2013 Joseph Horowitz on \u201cthe Gershwin threat\u201d and \u201cthe Gershwin moment\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>3:11 \u2013 Mark Clague on the original version of&nbsp;<em>An American in Pari<\/em>s<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>11:35 \u2013 Angel&nbsp;Gil-Ord\u00f3\u00f1ez&nbsp;on Gershwin\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Cuban<\/em>Overture<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>21:56 \u2013 Gershwin:&nbsp;<em>Cuban<\/em>Overture performed by PostClassical Ensemble conducted by Gil-Ord\u00f3\u00f1ez<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>40:06: Finale of Gershwin\u2019s Piano Concerto in F performed by Vakhtang Kodanashvili with PCE conducted by&nbsp;Gil-Ord\u00f3\u00f1ez<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Though a prominent British reviewer of what became the hit Met production of&nbsp;Porgy and Bess called Gershwin\u2019s landmark 1935 opera \u201ca period piece,\u201d it loudly resounds today. Consider the first act confrontation between a white detective and a black community.&nbsp; \u201cRace is critical to Gershwin\u2019s conception,\u201d observes the Gershwin scholar Mark Clague in the most [&hellip;]<\/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-1799","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2QLHN-t1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1799","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=1799"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1807,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1799\/revisions\/1807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}