{"id":3989,"date":"2012-02-15T13:11:14","date_gmt":"2012-02-15T17:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/?p=3989"},"modified":"2012-03-18T15:53:52","modified_gmt":"2012-03-18T19:53:52","slug":"the-gershwins%e2%80%99-electronic-porgy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/?p=3989","title":{"rendered":"The Gershwins\u2019 Electronic Porgy"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Sedgwick Clark<\/strong><\/p>\n

Am I the only one who found Audra McDonald\u2019s Bess jarring?<\/p>\n

The controversial pared-down adaptation of Porgy and Bess <\/em>now on Broadway\u2014updated, rewritten, politicized, feminized, call it what you will\u2014was initially attacked by Stephen Sondheim prior to its Cambridge tryout last summer, sight unseen, for having the audacity to change the text. But whatever problems the critics had with the adaptation by Suzan-Lori Parks and Diedre L. Murray, Diane Paulus\u2019s directorial concept, or the other actors\/singers, McDonald emerged triumphant and, as Susan Elliott wrote in her Musicalamerica.com<\/em> review, will probably get a Tony.<\/p>\n

My problem with McDonald\u2014who may be my favorite singer in the world\u2014is that she is playing neo-realism, complete with a nasty scar on her left cheek and a downright ugly tone of her alluring voice. Alright, I get it: Bess is a drug-addicted ho, and the rest of the cast could be right out of Gone with the Wind<\/em>. Crown (Phillip Boykin) could take a lesson from Wagner\u2019s Hunding, and David Alan Grier\u2019s drug-dealing Sportin\u2019 Life is no more reptilian than a garter snake. Norm Lewis\u00a0portrays a noble Porgy but\u00a0can’t compete vocally with\u00a0the aggressive Audra, whose show this clearly is.<\/p>\n

Today being today, the set is as deliberately depressing as possible. The choreography is crippled (was this deliberate too?). Perhaps worst of all, Gershwin\u2019s lush orchestral writing is reduced to a hideously tinny, gratingly amplified 20-piece band, clodhopperishly conducted by Constantine Kitsopoulos. I knew we were in for a rough evening when the piano jumped out clangorously in the texture early in the overture.<\/p>\n

No amount of bowdlerization by the current Broadway production will stop sold-out audiences from standing and cheering, however, and the run has been extended. At intermission, a woman behind me said to a friend, \u201cI\u2019m caught up in the music. What did they cut?\u201d Just goes to show ya\u2019 that even pockmarked by an unmusical rendering, Gershwin\u2019s songs can\u2019t be beat.<\/p>\n

Many critics referred to Simon Rattle\u2019s recording as an interpretive touchstone. I\u2019ve not heard it, but I was struck when I listened again this weekend to the excellent 1977 Houston Grand Opera recording on RCA by how the music could only have been composed in the 20th century. I happily recall the Met\u2019s fine production from the 1980s, but the most memorable production I\u2019ve seen was at Radio City Music Hall in 1983, unerringly conducted by C. William Harwood. I recall thinking how much I looked forward to\u00a0hearing him conduct again;\u00a0tragically he succumbed to AIDS\u00a0a year later at age 36.<\/p>\n

The Unpredictable Jed Distler<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jed once composed a string quartet styled as a set of variations on the Mister Softee theme, in which the final variation was a triple fugue combining the Mister Softee and Mister Ed themes with Beethoven\u2019s Grosse Fuge.<\/em><\/p>\n

Friday (2\/17) is the 30th anniversary of the great jazz composer-pianist Thelonius Monk\u2019s death. At the Cornelia Street Caf\u00e9 (29 Cornelia Street, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues in Manhattan) Jed will play two sets of what he calls \u201cThe Complete Works of Thelonius Monk,\u201d at 9 and 10:30. The complete <\/em>works? That seemed preposterous even for Jed, so I called him.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically I\u2019m interweaving all the pieces into one continuous fabric. Sometimes there might be seven blues themes played in quick succession over a pedal point, but in contrast Blue Monk<\/em> provides a framework for more extensive, complex improvisation. In a few instances I\u2019ll be playing the songs exactly as written.\u00a0 In others the themes might suggest Shostakovich or Strauss, but of course through my own demented filters.\u201d<\/p>\n

My Night with Gluck\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Being a picky opera and baroque fancier, the combined Met+Juilliard alliance in a concert performance of Gluck\u2019s Armide<\/em> (1777) at the School\u2019s Jay Sharp Theater may have been and is likely to be my sole encounter with this composer\u2019s music, which struck me as formulaic\/uninspired. The plot is set at the time of the First Crusade and deals with the sorceress Armide, princess of Damascus, who has, shall we say, issues with men and is horrified to find that she is falling in love with the one who alone has withstood her charms. Look to Tommasini\u2019s glowing review in the Times<\/em> for a more informed appreciation. But I must say that I agreed with Tony completely on the quite impressive performances by the young cast. I\u2019ll list them in full below and bet that several of these names will be well known in the near future. Emalie Savoy in the title role and Ren\u00e9e Tatum as La Haine, in particular, were dramatic dynamite.<\/p>\n

The cast: Emalie Savoy (Armide), Alexander Hajek (Hidraot), David Portillo (Renaud), Alexander Lewis (Art\u00e9midore), Luthando Qave (Ubalde), Noah Baetge (Le Chevalier Danois), Wallis Giunta (Ph\u00e9nice), Devon Guthrie (Sidonie), Evan Hughes (Aronte), Ren\u00e9e Tatum (La Haine), Soo Yeon Kim (La Na\u00efade), Pureum Jo (2nd<\/sup> Coryph\u00e9e), Deanna Breiwick (Une Berg\u00e8re), Lilla Heinrich-Sz\u00e1sz (Lucinde), and Raquel Gonz\u00e1lez (M\u00e9lisse). The British conductor Jane Glover was the workmanlike leader.<\/p>\n

To give full due to the presenters: The Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program in partnership with the Ellen and James S. Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts at The Juilliard School.<\/p>\n