Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess at Symphony Hall – Amplified Again!, by Michael Miller
Jermaine Smith as Sportin’ Life in Porgy and Bess with Bramwell Tovey conducting the BSO. Photo Stu Rosner.
Thursday, September 27, 8 p.m.
Friday, September 28, 8 p.m.
Saturday, September 29, 8 p.m.
Porgy and Bess
Opera in three acts by George Gershwin,
DuBose and Dorothy Heyward, and Ira Gershwin Original 1935 production version
Restoration from the original production materials
by John Mauceri with assistance from Wayne Shirley, Charles Hamm, and Scott Dunn
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Bramwell Tovey, conductor
Cast:
Alfred Walker, bass-baritone (Porgy)
Laquita Mitchell, soprano (Bess)
Alison Buchanan, soprano (Lily, Strawberry Woman)
Angel Blue, soprano (Clara)
Marquita Lister, soprano (Serena)
Krysty Swann, mezzo-soprano (Annie)
Gwendolyn Brown, contralto (Maria)
Calvin Lee, tenor (Mingo, Nelson, Crab Man)
Jermaine Smith, tenor (Sportin’ Life)
Chauncey Packer, tenor (Peter)
Gregg Baker, baritone (Crown)
Patrick Blackwell, baritone (Jim, Undertaker)
John Fulton, baritone (Robbins)
Robert Honeysucker, baritone (Frazier)
Leon Williams, baritone (Jake)
Tanglewood Festival Chorus
John Oliver, conductor
I’m sure I wasn’t alone in my keen anticipation of this reprise of the 2011 Tanglewood performance of George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess — not to here an excellent performance of a “good” version of the opera once again, but to hear it properly for the first time. As I said in my preview of this performance, the Tanglewood performance was totally vitiated — ruined — by the extensive use of amplification for the singers. None of Berkshire Review writers who attended wanted to review it. Although virtually the entire cast consisted of established opera singers, it was thought necessary to provide them with individual microphones. At the time, I thought this had to do mostly with the misguided notion of using elaborate “staging” for that concert performance, with singers entering from both sides of the vast stage. The result was that I heard the voice of a singer entering from the right coming from the left speaker, etc. Even worse was the fact that we rarely heard the singers’ voices directly, but only as recreated through the Music Shed’s wireless mics and enormous horn speakers. I couldn’t believe that the BSO management or the conductor, Bramwell Tovey, would try this again at Symphony Hall. For that reason I cheerfully procrastinated about writing about the problem until barely a month before the 2012 reprise. It seemed logical that one of the reasons for the Symphony Hall reprise was to set things right.

