Gershwin's Porgy and Bess Turns 70
Evening Music | May 6, 2010
It was 70 years ago today that Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess” (with a libretto by Ira Gershwin and DuBose Heyward) first debuted on Broadway at the Alvin Theater; we’ll give a musical nod with some selections from this masterful (yet highly controversial) “American folk opera.”
If Al Jolson had had his way back in 1932, “Porgy and Bess” would have been written by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II, with Jolsonwearing blackfacein the lead. George Gershwin managed to secure the rights from DuBose Hayward after interest waned over Jolson’s project, however, and premiered it on Broadway in 1935; it took many different versions (and productions) before it found its way into the mainstream repertoire as an opera (the Met first performed it in 1985). Even though “Porgy” has always been dogged by charges of racism, there’s no denying that it contains some of Gershwin’s most inspired musicsome of which we’ll hear on tonight’s program.
Also on the plate: Prokofiev’s wild and wooly Third Piano Concerto featuring Evgeny Kissin with the Berlin Philharmonic, and Camille Saint-Saëns’ Cello Concerto No. 1, Jacqueline Du Pre performing with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Daniel Barenboim. And later in the evening, we’ll hear the Tallis Scholars in the famous “Miserere” by that one-hit wonder of the Renaissance, Gregorio Allegri. As the story goes, the “Miserere” would never have been performed outside of the Vatican if it hadn’t been for a 14-year-old Mozart, who after hearing it only twice (during a visit to Rome) managed to write it out note for note from memory, thus creating the first bootleg copy!
If Al Jolson had had his way back in 1932, “Porgy and Bess” would have been written by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II, with Jolsonwearing blackfacein the lead. George Gershwin managed to secure the rights from DuBose Hayward after interest waned over Jolson’s project, however, and premiered it on Broadway in 1935; it took many different versions (and productions) before it found its way into the mainstream repertoire as an opera (the Met first performed it in 1985). Even though “Porgy” has always been dogged by charges of racism, there’s no denying that it contains some of Gershwin’s most inspired musicsome of which we’ll hear on tonight’s program.
Also on the plate: Prokofiev’s wild and wooly Third Piano Concerto featuring Evgeny Kissin with the Berlin Philharmonic, and Camille Saint-Saëns’ Cello Concerto No. 1, Jacqueline Du Pre performing with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Daniel Barenboim. And later in the evening, we’ll hear the Tallis Scholars in the famous “Miserere” by that one-hit wonder of the Renaissance, Gregorio Allegri. As the story goes, the “Miserere” would never have been performed outside of the Vatican if it hadn’t been for a 14-year-old Mozart, who after hearing it only twice (during a visit to Rome) managed to write it out note for note from memory, thus creating the first bootleg copy!
