Monte-Carlo Opera Stages The Gershwins®’ Porgy and Bess®

GILLY LLOYD9 September, 20264 Mins read100

Porgy and Bess® - Maquette décors ©Rudy Sabounghi - Opéra de Monte-Carlo

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Monte-Carlo Opera presents a new production of The Gershwins®’ Porgy and Bess® at the Grimaldi Forum this November

An opera by George Gershwin, DuBose Heyward, Dorothy Heyward and Ira Gershwin, this is probably the most famous and most successful American opera from the twentieth century.

It stars bass baritone Michael Sumuel as Porgy and soprano Brittany Olivia Logan as Bess. Crown – a dockworker and Bess’s boyfriend – is played by baritone Bongani Kubheka, and Sportin’ Life, a drug dealer, by tenor Chauncey Packer.

Also in the cast are Leah Hawkins as Serena, Brandie Sutton as Clara, Adriana Bignagni Lesca as Maria and Donovan Singletary as Jake. Lee Reynolds conducts and stage direction is by Jean-Louis Grinda.

^{Video via amadeusvideolog on YouTube}

Gershwin wrote his dramatic folk opera in three acts in 1934. During that summer, Gershwin and Heyward worked together on an island near Charleston, South Carolina, hoping to absorb the feeling of the Southern setting and the accent and rhythms of African American speech. The opera was premiered in Boston,  at the Colonial Theatre on September 30th 1935, and had limited success initially. Jazz fans were apparently put off by the work’s serious tone and opera fans by its saucy voice. Since then, Porgy and Bess® has been performed all over the world by theatre and opera companies.

Porgy and Bess® is set in Catfish Row, a dockside area of Charleston, around 1930. Porgy is a penniless cripple whose body has been battered by fate. Crown is a man driven by violent passions, and his partner, Bess, has a face that bears the marks of a troubled life. Sportin’ Life is a cunning schemer who deals drugs and exploits human weaknesses, and who offers Bess a tempting escape to New York, promising a freedom that is merely another form of slavery. Bess rejects this illusion, since only one man offers her what so many others have denied her – refuge and dignity. A quiet affection begins to blossom between Porgy and Bess.

Crown is later killed in a fight with Porgy. When the police arrive, they take Porgy away to identify the body, and in his absence, Sportin’ Life tells Bess that Porgy will be gone for a long time and regales her with tales of the high life in New York City. She finally consents to leave with him. A week later, Porgy is back. Seeing that Bess has gone and hearing of her destination, he sets off to retrieve her, full of hope for their future.

^{Video via Houston Grand Opera on YouTube}

In the 26/27 season, American bass-baritone Michael Sumuel, lauded as having “vocals that are smooth and ingratiating” (Daily Camera), will return to LA Opera in the title role in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, a role he will also sing with the Boston Symphony and at the Tanglewood Festival, as well as with Boston Lyric Opera. Other opera performances include Leporello in Mozart’s Don Giovanni with the Edinburgh International Festival. He will also appear with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for Mozart’s Requiem, the San Francisco Symphony for Haydn’s Creation, as Christus in Bach’s St Matthew Passion with Radio France, with the Handel & Haydn Society for Handel’s L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderatro and Handel’s Messiah with the Minnesota Orchestra and Kansas City Symphony.

Recent engagement highlights for Brittany Olivia Logan include the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro at Wolf Trap, Liù inTurandot at Lyric Opera of Kansas City, and the Priestess in Aida and Clotilde in Norma at the Metropolitan Opera. Praised for her “irresistible power and consummate control” by the Washington Classical Review), she returns to the Metropolitan Opera this season as Strawberry Woman in Porgy and Bess®, also covering Liù in Turandot. She joins Pittsburgh Opera in her house and role debuts, singing Musetta in La bohème, and sings Persephone in Lalovavi with Cincinnati Opera – an Afrofuturist opera.

^{Porgy and Bess® – Maquette décors © Rudy Sabounghi – Opéra de Monte-Carlo}

South African born Bongani Kubeka has appeared with Cape Town Opera as Basilio in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, Lord Sydney in Rossini’s Il Viaggio a Reims, The Puppet Master in Dominick Argento’s Postcard from Morocco and Doctor Grenville in Verdi’s La traviata. Bongani was awarded the 2019 Fleur du Cap award for Best Performance in Opera in the title role in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale. He has also recently performed at the annual RMB Starlight Classics concert at Vergelegen in Somerset West, South Africa.

American tenor and actor Chauncey Packer has appeared as Sportin’ Life with Metropolitan Opera, and with New York Harlem’s Porgy and Bess at Teatro Regio in Torino, Italy. He has appeared as Pinkerton in Puccini’s Madama Butterflyat Soo Theatre Project in Michigan, and at Chautauqua Opera as Cavaradossi in Puccini’s Tosca. This season’s engagements include Sportin’ Life with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra in Hamburg and with Rodolfo in Puccini’s La bohème, Alfredo in La traviata, Pong in Puccini’s Turandot, Sam in Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah, Tamino in The Magic Flute, Amon in Philip Glass’ Akhenaten and Sportin’ Life, Mingo, and Robbins in Porgy and Bess. Of his Sportin’ Life, the Atlanta Journal proclaimed “Here Chauncey Packer was the complete entertainer…”

Sets are by Rudy Sabounghi, costumes by Stéphanie Putegnat, lighting design by Laurent Castaingt, choreography byCaroline Roëlands and videos by Julien Soulier.

OMC2627_Porgy and Bess-View on the Mississippi©Ferdinand Richardt_1080x1350

^{Poster for The Gershwins®’ Porgy and Bess® – Opéra de Monte-Carlo – View on the Mississippi © Ferdinand Richardt}

Lee Reynolds leads the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Choir of the Cape Town Opera (Choirmaster Antoinette Huyssen) in three performances of The Gershwins®’ Porgy and Bess® on 15th (3 pm), 19th (7 pm) and 21st November (8 pm). The performance on 19th November will be by invitation of the Palace, and that on the 21st will be a Gala Evening. All performances will be at the Grimaldi Forum.

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