 "Porgy and Bess" has been labeled a "musical," a "folk-opera," "a music drama." How do you see it?
 When you look at the score in its totality, as it is being done now, it is every bit as much an opera as any other opera. The only thing that makes it "folk" is that it has folk scenes in it. But lots of operas have that. Perhaps it has been misunderstand for so long because Gershwin only wanted its main roles performed by black people. When he auditioned black singers for the piece, they made his music sound more ethnic, and they were closer to the specific vocal colors he had in his head. But, of course, it has been performed with white singers. When I sang "Porgy" in Vienna, only the principals were black. The chorus and the dancers were all made up to look black.
On your famous 1952 "Porgy" tour and later at New City Opera, did you do the full three-act version? No, we did a two-act version, the so-called "Broadway" version, but we put back most of the recitatives that had been replaced with spoken dialogue. In Vienna we did even more of the music, but not quite as much as was done at the Metropolitan Opera. Were you at the Met premiere? You bet. I was invited for opening night. It was a great thrill. You know the Met had originally asked for the premiere back in 1935, but it was virtually impossible back then for the Met to assemble an all-black cast. It is amazing that "Porgy" was created by a man of Southern gentry and one who was a New York Jew, and yet, don't you think, they captured the black spirit incredibly well? Oh, I do. That's because Gershwin spent so much time in Charleston and had so many black people sing their songs and spirituals for him. He absorbed all the street calls and the music being sung in the black churches and transcribed it. That's why it is so authentic. What did you think of the film of "Porgy"? I didn't think it did the opera justice. It was geared for a popular market, and they had to use stars such as Sidney Poitier and Dorothy Dandridge who didn't have singing voices, and their parts had to be dubbed by Robert McFerrin and Adele Addison. To make matters worse, much of synchronization wasn't very good. Now Sammy Davis was great -- he did his thing -- and Pearl Bailey was also wonderful. What, to you, were the pleasures and problems in performing Porgy? Frankly, I don't remember any vocal problems. The only trouble I had was having to sing role on my knees. I had been warned about this by Todd Duncan, the original Porgy. He told me, "Bill, protect your knees. It can be real problem on a long tour." He give me some valuable hints as to how to get around the problem because he had sung the part using no padding and had damaged his knees. For me, they built in pads in my pants, and I also covered my knees with soft cotton, which I strapped on with tape. Even then, it took time for me to learn to pace myself and move in what would have been a natural way as Porgy.
You heard both Duncan and the original Bess, Anne Brown, in the famous revival on Broadway in the 1940s. What do you remember of them? Well, it was the first Broadway show I ever saw, and the impact was terrific. It was the first time "Porgy" was given using spoken dialogue, which was taken from the original play. It was a big hit, and I found it very gripping. In particular, I fell in love with Anne Brown. She was so beautiful. Recently, at the Bregenz Festival in Austria, a new staging of "Porgy" was mounted, and the director attempted to turn the production into a social statement about the oppression of blacks in the United States. Do you think that "Porgy" makes such a statement? I don't think it really does in the same sense that Jerome Kern's "Show Boat" does. To me, "Porgy" is mainly a beautiful and good story. You don't see "Porgy" and think "This is wrong" and "This is right." You are touched by the tale of a cripple who falls in love with a wayward woman and tries to save her with his love. I do think, however, audiences today see "Porgy" today in a different way than they did in the 1930s when it was new. In the 1930s "Porgy" presented blacks in a stereotyped way. But, today, I don't think anybody is going to see the opera and think, "That's the way blacks really live." Today we can put the opera in a perspective that was not possible when it was new. For so much has changed in the last 60 years.
But believe me, there was a time when a black artist thought very seriously as to whether or not he or she should perform in "Porgy" or "Show Boat." I remember when our State Department decided to send the 1952 "Porgy" abroad, there was a lot of criticism from black groups about whether this was the right thing to do. In particular, they were afraid the Russians would have a heyday with the show and say "See how blacks are mistreated in America." And Leontyne Price and I both had to search our hearts before we decided to do the tour. But I have to tell you, the tour produced absolutely the opposite reaction. What the foreign press saw and reported, including the Russians, was a group of gifted artists performing an exciting work in an exciting manner. Do you regard "Porgy" as the true American opera? Yes, in the sense of its being a real masterpiece. Americans have produced many fine things when it comes to opera -- Carlisle Floyd's "Susannah" and Samuel Barber's "Vanessa." But to me "Porgy" towers over all of them. |
