GHCD 2313_14 PORGY & BESS [COMPLETE] Music – George Gershwin (1898-1937) – Words Ira Gershwin (1896-1993) & Dubose Hayward – Live recording Sunday 21st September 1952, Titiania Palast Berlin William Warfield (Porgy) / Leontyne Price (Bess) / Cab Calloway (Sporting Life) / John McCurry (Crown) / Joseph James (Jake) / Helen Colbert (Clara) / Howard Roberts (Robbins) / Helen Thigpen (Serena) / Leslie Scott (Jim) / Moses Lamar (Frazier) / William Weasey (Undertaker) / Walter Riemann (Detective) / Helen Dowdy (Strawberry woman) / Ray Yates (Crab man) / Eva Jessye Choir / RIAS-Unterhaltungsorchester / Alexander Smallens, CD1 62’:08 – CD2 77’:09 – Total 2:19:17
Spiegel Online Kultur Wednesday August 20th 2008
Zeichen und Wunder geschehen meist unbemerkt. Knapp 56 Jahre nach ihrer Live-Aufnahme ist erstmals George Gershwins Oper "Porgy and Bess" in einer Idealbesetzung, noch dazu vorzüglich remastered, auf CD erschienen – und niemandem ist's aufgefallen.
Porgy & Bess"-Aufnahme: Vor Begeisterung und Missionseifer berstende Bande
Liegt das daran, dass uns Gershwins einzige Oper – außer den Hits – doch gleichgültig ist? Die Musikgeschichte wäre ziemlich anders verlaufen, wenn nicht etwa Arnold Schönbergs "Moses und Aron", sondern Gershwins gleichfalls berühmter Dreistünder traditionsbildend auf die Oper des 20. Jahrhunderts gewirkt hätte. Immerhin, so verschiedene Welten sind das gar nicht. Schönberg und Gershwin waren Tennispartner. Der eine komponierte tonal, der andere nicht (oder nicht sehr lange). Zwei Jahre nach der Uraufführung von "Porgy and Bess" (1935) starb Gershwin und konnte sich um sein Fortkommen in der Klassik nicht weiter kümmern.
Als 1952 dann
eine Traumbesetzung von "Porgy and Bess" für eine Tourneeproduktion zusammenkam,
war das Werk immer noch keine zwanzig Jahre alt. Das Jazz-Fieber, das in ihm
vibriert, traf nun den (lange Jahre unterdrückten) Nerv der Zeit in Europa. Man
erlebte dabei eine epochale Riege von Sängern. William Warfield (Porgy) war
soeben mit "Ol' Man River" in George Sidneys "Show Boat"-Revival zum Filmstar
geworden (an der Seite von Ava Gardner). Als Sportin' Life debütierte ein
Swing-Bandleader und Scat-Sänger in seiner ersten Bühnenrolle. Ihn hatten die
Gershwins beim Schreiben sogar ursprünglich im Sinn gehabt: der legendäre Cab
Calloway. Und dann war da in der Rolle der Bess noch eine junge Studentin, die
später Karajans Lieblingssopran für Verdi und Puccini werden sollte. Schon hier
besitzt ihre Stimme den schimmernden Glanz einer schwarzen Perle: Leontyne
Price. Es handelt sich um die früheste der von ihr erhaltenen
Schallplatten-Aufnahmen.
Dass der Mitschnitt 1952 ausgerechnet im Berliner Titania-Palast entstand –
damals von Wilhelm Furtwängler und den Berliner Philharmonikern als Konzertsaal
genutzt – ist eine atemberaubende Kuriosität am Rande. Für die (etwas gekürzte)
Tournee-Variante hatte man sich in Berlin ein Orchester eingekauft – das (später
leider aufgelöste) RIAS-Unterhaltungsorchester. Das blieb der einzige Neuzugang.
Dirigent Alexander Smallens hatte schon die Broadway-Uraufführung geleitet. Der
Eva Jessye Choir und einige Nebendarsteller, darunter die hinreißende Helen
Dowdy als Strawberry Woman, stammten gleichfalls aus der Originalproduktion.
Tatsächlich macht die vor Begeisterung und Missionseifer berstende Bande dem Berliner Orchester ordentlich Beine. Man hört, wie hier das Berliner Nachkriegspublikum vom Jazz infiziert wird – einschließlich der Musiker. Die Produktion zog danach weiter an die Mailänder Scala und bis nach Moskau – wo sie das erste Gastspiel einer amerikanischen Theatertruppe seit der russischen Revolution wurde.
Später waren dann Leontyne Price, Cab Calloway und William Warfield freilich nicht mehr dabei. Über all das staunt man bei dieser Trouvaille. Mit den heute als Jazz-Standards geltenden Titeln wie "Summertime", "I've got plenty of nothing" und "There's a boat going soon to New York" ist die Aufnahme ein Wiegendruck der Jazz- ebenso wie der Operngeschichte. So Hand in Hand ist man später nie mehr gegangen. Kai Luehrs-Kaiser
CD George Gershwin: "Porgy & Bess" mit Leontyne Price, William Warfield, Cab Calloway. Live-Aufnahme vom 21. September 1952 in Berlin. (2 CDs, Guild GHCD 2313/4).
BBC RADIO 3 - SATURDAY AUGUST 9 2008 - ANDREW MCGREGOR INTRODUCES SOME OF THE BEST RECORDINGS
Today at the Proms, though, there’s a celebration of 20th century Americana, with George Gershwin ‘Striking up the Band’ at the start of this evening’s Prom, and ending it on a visit to Marais and Colombe’s home city: ‘An American in Paris’. Plus sax player, composer and Jazz Warrior Jason Yarde paying homage to Gershwin in two new works, including an arrangement of a famous number from Gershwin’s opera ‘Porgy and Bess’. If you’re a fan of the opera, then there’s a recently released recording of it you have to hear. In 1952 the US State Department sponsored a European tour for the opera with an all-black cast, which was an awkward time for race relations, to say the least. William Warfield had been put forward as Porgy, and he remembered the controversy in the black press when the production returned from triumphant performances in London, Vienna and Berlin to success in New York City. ‘In 1952’, said Warfield: ‘the black community wasn’t listening to anything about plenty of nothing being good enough for me. Blacks began talking about being black and proud.’ But the impact in Europe was huge…and Maya Angelou, who joined the cast to play Ruby in the second, longer tour of 1954, remembered the tension and tenderness as the love story unfolded at La Scala, Milan, where a black cast had never appeared before.
But back to that 1952 tour, where Warfield’s Porgy was teamed with the Bess of a little-known young singer: Leontyne Price, just in her mid-20s. Add to that the jazz vocalist and bandleader Cab Calloway in sassy form as Sportin’ Life, and already you ought to be very interested…but apart from these superb leads, the most striking thing about this recording from the Titania Palast in Berlin is the ensemble: the atmosphere of Catfish Row, and the interaction in the chorus. This isn’t a bunch of singers following a score; this is a team of singing actors living it onstage, and despite it’s age I’ve never heard a recording of Porgy and Bess that crackles with so much physical energy and emotional electricity.
Here’s a sequence that ought to give you a feel for what we have here. First, the opening, which means you’ll hear the hustle and bustle, and the Summertime of Helen Colbert as Clara.
Then from the second act, Warfield and Price in ‘Bess, you is my woman now’…before from the next scene, Sportin’ Life’s cynical assessment of religion: ‘It ain’t necessarily so’. And right at the end, Porgy, calling for his goat, determined to set off on the 1000 mile trip to New York in search of Bess.
Alexander Smallens conducts the Eva Jessye Choir and RIAS light orchestra…and it’s curtain up in Berlin, September 1952: evening in Catfish Row, a black tenement on the waterfront of Charleston, South Carolina.
2. GERSHWIN/PORGY AND BESS (excerpts)
16.52
Warfield, Price, Calloway, Colbert/Eva Jessye Choir/RIAS Unterhaltungsorchester/Smallens
Guild GHCD 2313/14 compilation [disc 1 tks 1 & 17; disc 2 tks 1, 2 & 25]
The end of George Gershwin’s opera Porgy and Bess, recorded live on the 21st
September 1952 in the Titania Palast in Berlin, during the US State
Department-sponsored European tour with William Warfield as Porgy, Leontyne
Price as Bess, Cab Calloway as Sportin’ Life, and Helen Colbert as Clara in the
excerpts you heard. But what about the Eva Jessye Choir, and the quality of
those semi-improvised crowd scenes? It’s such a passionately involving
performance, we’re lucky to have its like on disc at all. It’s the two act
version of Porgy, sometimes called the ‘Broadway’ version, and Warfield recalled
replacing most of the spoken dialogue with recitatives. Never mind the 56 year
old mono sound, this is the most enthralling recording of the opera I’ve heard,
and it’s a recent release from Guild: two CDs at mid-price
GRAMOPHONE AUGUST 2008
EDITORS CHOICE GRAMOPHONE - For full review click on Editors Choice Gramophone
A FAMOUS - AND TREMENDOUS - PORGY AND BESS NO GERSHWIN LOVER SHOULD MISS
MusicWeb International - Wednesday July 02 2008
George
GERSHWIN
(1898–1937)
Porgy and Bess (1935)
William Warfield (bass-baritone) – Porgy; Leontyne Price (soprano) – Bess; Cab
Calloway (vocals) – Sporting Life; John McCurry (baritone) – Crown; Joseph James
(bass) – Jake; Helen Colbert (soprano) – Clara; Howard Roberts (baritone) –
Robbins; Helen Thigpen (soprano) – Serena and several others; Eva Jessye Choir;
RIAS
Unterhaltungsorchester/Alexander Smallens
rec. live, Titania Palast, Berlin, 21 September 1952
GUILD GHCD 2313/14 [62:08 + 77:09]
In 1952 the US State Department subsidized a world tour of Porgy and Bess, which lasted over three years. For many opera lovers this was their first opportunity to see this American folk opera. A lot of the music was already well known through recordings, not only with operatic artists like Helen Jepson, Lawrence Tibbett and the great Paul Robeson but also with leading popular singers and jazz musicians. This tour was the foundation for the success that Porgy and Bess has been ever since. It was also through this tour that the young Leontyne Price made herself a name, even though it was some years before she became firmly established.
The present live recording was made when Price was 25 and the youthful freshness of her singing as well as the lyrical brightness are at once apparent. The recorded sound, the noisy background and sometimes odd balance between orchestra and soloists make this a valuable historical documentation rather than a set one buys and consumes repeatedly as a library recording. Leontyne Price and William Warfield recorded a highlights disc for RCA a good decade later in splendid sound with Skitch Henderson’s taut and precise conducting lifting the music to supreme heights. On that LP Ms Price also sang Clara’s Summertime and Serena’s My man’s gone now. William Warfield’s reading of Porgy’s role was even more assured than here. McHenry Boatwright’s magnificent bass made him an even nastier Crown and the jazz singer John W Bubbles gave special authenticity to Sporting Life – he was the singer who sang the role at the premiere. That record is enthusiastically recommended as a complement to any of the complete recordings.
I suppose that the performance in Titania Palast in Berlin also was enjoyable, if the audience reaction is anything to go by. There is long and powerful applause after several of the set-pieces, most of all the glorious reading of the duet Bess, you is my woman now with Warfield’s warm Porgy matching the bright tones of Ms Price’s superb Bess. The three women in the penultimate scene pulling the leg of the detective are met with repeated laughs. The whole performance is lively, noisy and enthusiastic. There is often tremendous force and rhythmic drive in the many mass-scenes. The performance is fairly complete but there are several minor cuts and the Buzzard song is missing all together. On the other hand there is more spoken dialogue in several places, compared to Simon Rattle’s Glyndebourne recording. I tried to follow the performance via the booklet to that EMI set but this was far from easy.
I have already mentioned Price and Warfield who are superb throughout but there are several other singers who make splendid contributions. Helen Colbert sings Summertime with glorious tone and Helen Thigpen is touching in My man’s gone now. Joseph James as Jake has a magnificent black bass and sings with rhythmic élan while John McCurry’s gruff Crown is less of an asset. I am also in two minds concerning Cab Calloway’s Sporting Life. He is oily and slimy and was probably splendid visually too but vocally he tends to over-act. I prefer John W Bubbles, who was just as jazzy but more balanced.
Readers who want a complete recording of this American ‘verismo’ opera have two splendid sets to choose from: Lorin Maazel’s Decca recording from the mid-1970s and the aforementioned EMI set under Rattle from the late 1980s. On both sets Willard White is a deeply involved Porgy, fresher of voice on Decca; on EMI he is a bit strained on the highest notes.
The inlay to this Guild issue has well-written historical notes and a synopsis but no libretto. As I have already intimated the issue is more aimed at specialist collectors than general opera-lovers. Apart from the technical shortcomings and the noisy production it is definitely highly interesting.
Göran Forsling
Page revised Tuesday October 212008