George Gershwin - Porgy & Bess / Trevor Nunn Â· Sir Simon Rattle Â· W. White Â· C. Haymon Â· Glyndebourne Opera

Starring:Willard White, Cynthia Haymon, Gregg Baker (II), Cynthia Clarey, Marietta Simpson, Damon Evans, Paula Ingram, Gordon Hawkins, Harolyn Blackwell, Bruce Hubbard, D. Alonzo Washington, Maureen Breathwaite, Steve Agyei, Curtis Watson, Austris Paige, Joshuez Harriott, Camellia Johnson, Yolanda Grant, Colenton Freeman, Mervin Wallace
Director: Trevor Nunn
Studio: Angel Records
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
This powerful production originated on the stage of the Glyndebourne Festival. It was restaged and filmed on location for the BBC telecast preserved in this video recording. Director Trevor Nunn takes full advantage of the realism, fluidity of movement, and precision of small details that are difficult to achieve when televising a staged performance but easy and natural in a movie treatment.

Nunn's vision, conveyed by an unusually talented cast, is constantly touching and rises to overwhelming intensity at climactic points. For example: the crap game and fight that end in Robbins's death, the hurricane scene, Crown's capture and abuse of Bess on Kittiwah Island, Porgy's fight with Crown, the comically sinister antics of Sportin' Life, the double-edged pathos and absurdity of the scene in which Bess gets "divorced," and the electrifying conclusion, when Porgy throws away his crutches and sets out, naively, to find Bess in New York.

Musically, Simon Rattle and all the performers find the exact style for Gershwin's marvelous score--not only such big numbers as "Summertime," "Bess, You Is My Woman Now," "I Loves You, Porgy," "I Got Plenty o' Nuttin'," "It Ain't Necessarily So," "I Hates Your Struttin' Style," and "O Lawd, I'm on My Way," but such smaller items as the exquisite cries of the street vendors of honey, strawberries, and crabs. There are no weaknesses in the cast. Willard White and Cynthia Haymon are ideal in the title roles, Gregg Baker is a terrifying, larger-than-life Crown, and Damon Evans is a properly slimy Sportin' Life. The white police officers are splendidly repulsive. --Joe McLellan
Description
The Gershwins' musical masterpiece Porgy and Bess is one of America's greatest works. This production was adapted for the screen by Trevor Nunn and Yves Baigneres. It was directed by Trevor Nunn and is based on the highly successful staging of the original Glyndebourne Festival Opera production in 1986-87, which was remounted at Covent Garden in the autumn of 1992 with most of the original cast. Immediately after that performance the production was moved to the giant stage at Shepperton Studios, with much expanded sets and lighting. It was then recorded using EMI's original award-winning soundtrack.

First performed in 1935 and based on the play Porgy by DuBose and Dorothy K. Heyward, Porgy and Bess has achieved worldwide renown through such memorable songs as "Summertime," "It Ain't Necessarily So," "I Got Plenty o' Nuttin'," "Oh Lawd, I'm on My Way," and many more, set to Gershwin's moving symphonic score. 184 minutes.

Amazon.com

This powerful production originated on the stage of the Glyndebourne Festival. It was restaged and filmed on location for the BBC telecast preserved in this video recording. Director Trevor Nunn takes full advantage of the realism, fluidity of movement, and precision of small details that are difficult to achieve when televising a staged performance but easy and natural in a movie treatment.

Description

The Gershwins' musical masterpiece Porgy and Bess is one of America's greatest works. This production was adapted for the screen by Trevor Nunn and Yves Baigneres. It was directed by Trevor Nunn and is based on the highly successful staging of the original Glyndebourne Festival Opera production in 1986-87, which was remounted at Covent Garden in the autumn of 1992 with most of the original cast. Immediately after that performance the production was moved to the giant stage at Shepperton Studios, with much expanded sets and lighting. It was then recorded using EMI's original award-winning soundtrack.

First performed in 1935 and based on the play Porgy by DuBose and Dorothy K. Heyward, Porgy and Bess has achieved worldwide renown through such memorable songs as "Summertime," "It Ain't Necessarily So," "I Got Plenty o' Nuttin'," "Oh Lawd, I'm on My Way," and many more, set to Gershwin's moving symphonic score. 184 minutes.

Customer Reviews:

The classic DVD currently on the market - a film of the opera performance done at England's Glynnebourne, always well done there.......2007-06-10

A film of a staged performance always is interesting if the background doesn't take over. In this Glynnebourne production later filmed at a studio, that is the case. Good cast, great music (Gershwin's only opera), and popular in Europe as well as the U.S., this "Porgy" is a classic.

George Gershwin - Porky & Bess.......2007-05-21

George Gershwin - Porgy & Bess / Trevor Nunn Â· Sir Simon Rattle Â· W. White Â· C. Haymon Â· Glyndebourne Opera

Very Good!.......2007-05-19

Having read some of the other reviews, it appears as though some don't realize that Porgy and Bess was (and is) an opera. Many who are only familiar with the 1959 Samuel Goldwyn musical with Sidney Poitier, Brock Peters, Dorothy Dandrige, and Sammy Davis Jr. appear to be disappointed with this production. I too was initially introduced to Porgy and Bess via the musical. And, as a child, enjoyed it! However, after having purchased a complete score recording back in the 1970's, I came to discover just how much I was missing! I also discovered that Ira Gershwin had the Samuel Goldwyn musical pulled in 1974 since it demeaned what he and his brother, George, had in mind. A number of years back (March 20, 1983 to be exact) I saw a production of Porgy and Bess in it's entirety (it did omit the "Buzzard song") at Radio City Music Hall from the front row and was overwhelmed. I saw it again a couple of years ago at, I believe, the Carpenter Center in Richmond Va. (not quite the production as the one in NYC but good none the less). This DVD is about as close as I'll get to seeing a fine production of that opera again! If you don't like George Gershwin music or Operas, don't buy it! If you want to experience what George and Ira Gershwin intended, this is as close to it as we'll get for a while.

out of date.......2007-03-08

In it's prime this was probably a great opera and if you are interested in the early culture of our country it is a must see. The opera is difficult to follow and a guide would be helpful otherwise you just stumble through it. Not much for entertainment.

Preminger's version is NOT the "original"!.......2006-09-20

Several other users have said everything I'm going to, but their opinions may get lost amongst the overwhelming majority of comments lamenting the unavailability of the 1959 film version of "Porgy & Bess". Let's just get some of the basic facts straight again.

The "original" production of "Porgy & Bess" as an opera took place in 1935 on stage. Even this premiere presentation was abridged, both to conform to the conventions of Broadway (where it was originally presented), and to spare the voices of the leads, particularly Porgy (which is why the "Buzzard Song" was cut from the first production).

In a sense, the first time the opera was presented as Gershwin truly envisioned it was by the Houston Grand Opera in 1976, with the full score restored, as well as the recitative passages which were frequently changed to spoken dialogue in earlier productions.

The film version was an aberration-- I've never seen it, but have read quite a bit about it, and it seems clear that this version was intended as more of a musical than an opera. Also, most of the parts were dubbed by other singers, so those who complain about about this issue on the current DVD release of the Glyndebourne production should bear that in mind.

The Gershwin estate *is* responsible for squashing any trace of the PReminger film, which I think is a shame if only for reasons of artistic free speech, but the censorship becomes more understandable when you see how many Amazon.com users have posted comments that demonstrate the 1959 film is, to a large degree, what the public sees as the true "Porgy & Bess". And this is after almost 50 years of supressing the film from public view!

OK, so all the above said, what about the Glyndebourne DVD? I think it's exceptionally well done, but share some of the reservations noted by others: the lip synching is distractingly off at points (particularly if you're watching on a large screen TV); I find the sound mixing occassionally off, sometimes drowning out the vocal lines.

But these are minor quibbles. I can't imagine a true operatic trreatment as a film. I can't even think of a precedent. It's taken for granted that cinematic presentations of Shakespeare will be abridged, rearrange, and reinterpreted, and the same holds true for film treatments of opera. The forms just don't naturally jell.

Television can present opera as opera, with just enough opening up of the action to prevent the story from feeling static or stagebound. And I think Trevor Nunn has done just this, with some creative and original interpretations of his own. Whether you like the change he's made to the ending or not, I think you have to admire the creativity behind it. It's certainly not exploitative. At worst, it's a bit sentimental. I find it inspiring, in a metaphorical way. I don't think the miracle is meant to be taken quite literally.

The performances are uniformally excellent, powerful and dignified. I was personally most impressed by Cynthia Haymon as Bess, who is really the only character to undergo a major transformation through the course of the story. She is believable, earthily beatiful, and the sympathy you feel for her intensifies the heartbreaking tragedy of her fate.

Those who have complained about the acting performances simply don't understand that opera acting is generally stylized, similarly to silent film acting. There's also an unfortunate history of only semi-competent acting in the opera world, but I can't point to a single weak link in the cast of this DVD production.

This is a creative, faithful adaptation for television of the opera as it was intended to be seen by Gershwin himself. The 1959 film should be available for contemporary evaluation, but it's simply unfair to knock this wonderful 1993 prodcution on the basis of dimly nostalgic memories of the lost Preminger film. I do wish the sound were a bit better, and that the lip synching was better matched to the dubbed vocals, but these are intellectual, trivial criticisms of what I find to be a musically and emotionally powerful presentation of Gershwin's masterpiece.

A Tribute to George Gershwin - Cuban Overture, Porgy and Bess, Rhapsody in Blue / Gloyd, Makowicz

Average customer rating:

dinner with gershwin
Wonderful!

A Tribute to George Gershwin - Cuban Overture, Porgy and Bess, Rhapsody in Blue / Gloyd, Makowicz
Starring: Russell S. Gloyd , and Adam Makowicz
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00005R5H4
Release Date: 2001-12-11

Amazon.com

The 1998 Lugano Festival presented this elegant concert of George Gershwin's orchestral music, including the colorful Cuban Overture and the Rhapsody in Blue. Gershwin's strongest claim to immortality, however, lies in his vocal music--Porgy & Bess and dozens of songs written for Broadway shows but able to stand by themselves. No singing is heard on this disc, but the vocal music is well-represented in a symphonic suite from Porgy & Bess and transcriptions for piano and orchestra of three songs: "Embraceable You," "'S Wonderful," and "The Man I Love."

In a sense, the program is a showcase for pianist Adam Makowicz, who solos gracefully in the Rhapsody and the songs with a self-confident virtuosity that gets to the heart of the music. In the Rhapsody, Makowicz fluently and imaginatively improvises cadenzas, as Gershwin did for the first performance, producing a version that is different from all others. --Joe McLellan

Description

Pianist Adam Makowicz and the Orchestra Della Svizzera Italiana, conducted by Russell S. Gloyd, perform at the Piazza Riforma in Lugano, Switzerland, in July 1998. Tracks: Cuban Overture, Porgy and Bess Suite/Embraceable You/'S Wonderful/The Man I Love, Rhapsody in Blue.

Customer Reviews:

dinner with gershwin.......2006-03-03

me and a special found a lovely way to spend a evening. no wonder brenda r. wrote a song about the man.

Wonderful!.......2005-07-06

Not only was the music beautifully done with a nice spectrum of Gershwin's work, but the introductions by the director were just informative enough without distracting from the flow. I enjoyed the live setting as well.

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