Porgy and Bess, Royal Festival Hall

Cape Town Opera Show What They Do Bess

4 stars

Gershwin’s 1935 folk opera, Porgy and Bess, is frequently revived and is one of his most popular, and problematic, works. It was initially rejected as not being a proper opera, critics claiming that Gershwin should stick to the forms he knew, and was only really recognised as a legitimate opera in the 1970s. It has now been given a whole new relevance, however, in Cape Town Opera’s reworking of it into the South African Aparteid era, directed by Christine Crouse and conducted by David Charles Abell.

Charleston’s ‘Catfish Row’ has here become Cape Town’s black community into which one or two white men stray. With a large orchestra filling the most part of the front stage, the singers inhabit the space behind them, raised on platforms and not apparently cramped by their relatively small space. The chorus are arranged as a choir at the back and, although at times their projection is compromised, they generally produce a round and uplifting sound, simultaneously performing some simple but impeccable choreography. Xolela Sixaba makes an excellent Porgy, scooting around on his makeshift mobility aid, his physical stature only adding to his vulnerability. His fruity and beautifully controlled vocals are perfectly complemented by Kearstin Piper Brown’s Bess, who is sexy, fragile, with an impressive steeliness to her voice. Arline Jaftha gives a sublime rendition of the lullaby ‘Summertime’, and Victor Ryan Robertson, with a noticeably lighter more jazzy voice than the rest of the company, is a simultaneously cheeky and sinister character.

While it is easy to become wrapped up in Porgy’s love and his loss, not to mention the many deaths that infuse the opera, humour and a sense of defiant fun is never far away in this production, with two nimble and wild-limbed dancers visually lifting the chorus numbers. Chrstine Crouse has also cast a delightfully strident Miranda Tini as Maria with lungs like the Grand Canyon and a fist you should avoid at all costs.

There is spirit to this production bringing out the resilience in Gershwin’s characters that pull through so many struggles. At the end when Porgy learns of Bess’s departure to New York without him, the lights go down on his defiant resolve to go find her. He has not yet been defeated by his race, his social position, or his disability, and this final line shows that nor will he be defeated by love. A defiance is what pulled South Africa and its oppressed black community through some of the most major political upheavals and difficulties in the century and so the context is perfectly suited to Gershwin’s ideals.

The main charm of this Porgy and Bess is its organic simplicity. At times, this means that the full dramatic effect is absent, as fights that end in murder can look more like playground wrestles, and Crown’s urgent banging on the door is followed by him popping on stage looking distinctly unharried. But it’s the music that has been prioritised here, more than the dramatic effect, and with exhilarating vocals from all the principals, a thrilling wall of sound from the chorus, and a consistently tight orchestra playing Gershwin’s tricky score, the Cape Town Opera are letting Gershwin speak while highlighting how the story can be translated into many cultures.

Anna Brewer : 15 Nov 2009 10:01 |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem