When George Gershwin set out to compose the score for Porgy and Bess in 1934, having been enraptured by DuBose Heyward’s novel Porgy, he set himself a challenge for the work. “If successful,” he said, “it will resemble a combination of the romance of Carmen and the beauty of Meistersinger.”
This was to be a challenge for Gershwin – the debut operatist keen to fuse exoticism with complex Wagnerian themes – and indeed for the future actors, singers, set designers, and producers who would attempt to bring this vision to life.
October 11 marked the opening night of the first major production of Porgy and Bess in London since the 1980s and the first ever performance in English National Opera’s history. The lobbies and bars of the London Coliseum were sizzling with excitement and anticipation as opera lovers piled in to see whether this ensemble would be up to the challenge.
Without wanting to give too much away too early, I can tell you right off the bat that they are. This is a first rate production with some incredibly talented soloists and and a solid internationally selected ensemble.
The tantalising, swirling overture sets the scene before the screens rise on the sweltering languor of Catfish Row, a tenement neighbourhood in South Carolina in the 1920s. The reveal is accompanied by the opening strains of Summertime, one of the most recorded songs of all time – somnolent, lilting, yet somehow foreboding.
This combination is emblematic of the entire production, which underlays all moments of the characters’ happiness with the threat of danger or devastation. This threat is personified by Sportin’ Life, the ever-present, sleazy “happy dust” dealer, played by a scene-stealing Frederick Ballentine, and Crown (Nmon Ford), the violent alpha male and the opera’s principal bad guy.
Pressured by Sportin’ Life’s insidious dismantling and Crown’s wanton destruction and abuse, the community of Catfish Row – exposed to the audience by the vast, revolving, skeletal scaffolding of James Robinson’s impressive set – fluctuates between wild partying and misery throughout the production.
Balancing atop this delicate set up, the love affair between impressionable young Bess (Nicole Cabell) – Crown’s lover and fellow drug addict – and the gentle, crippled Porgy (Eric Greene), is a symbol of hope and happiness in the community. This happiness too is destined to be tested by external forces, as the orchestra’s strained strings and brass section herald a catastrophic hurricane, and the return of Crown from jail to reclaim Bess.
Gershwin’s melodies are infectious, switching from the jocular honky tonk of A Woman is Sometime Thing, to the mournful chromatic sorrow of My Man’s Gone Now. Like the opera’s characters, the minute you find yourself tapping your feet and smiling, you’re brought crashing back down to earth and drying your eyes. It’s a rollercoaster of a work, and one which English National Opera has produced spectacularly well. It’s impressive without being ostentatious, and there are no embarrassing attempts to modernise it or alter it for today’s audience. Doomed romance worthy of Bizet with a healthy side portion of Wagnerian tragedy.
Gershwin set himself a challenge with Porgy and Bess and surpassed expectations. In their production of this outstanding opera, English National Opera – and all involved in the production – have done the same.
Book tickets to Porgy and Bess here
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George Clode is a travel and culture writer, and a multimedia commissioning editor for travel
