Customer Reviews

Gershwin: Porgy and Bess

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Having listened to and been at many performances of Porgy and Bess, this really is the best recording.

The voices, the caricatures of the characters sparkle. The music comes alive. The conductor, solo artists and chorus shine.

As far as CD MANIAC is concerned, I don't think there is an understanding that the performance was to have been as a true, full-blown opera performed to the extent of Carmen or La Boheme. I think this is where the mis-understanding.

Gershwin, being that absolute genius he was, shows categorically in this performance that his "folk" opera could dazzle as well as any other in the showcase of "traditional" operas. So what a composer, what a piece!

That is the whole point to this recording.

Shame on CD MANIAC.

Have had this for years on LP and am astonished to learn that it's not in stock on CD. For Gershwin fans it's a "must own", in my opinion the best Porgy & Bess ever recorded. It's the full score, apparently the first ever, and some of the greatest music in the opera is not familiar. Please Amazon.com - tell me it's now on CD and you will ship it to me. PLEASE!

I've heard many versions of this work, but this Grammy-award winning recording (1976 Best Opera Recording) stands out as having the best performances. Francois Clemens (from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood!) shows some real chops as Sportin' Life (hitting all the high notes), and Florence Quivar sings the BEST "My Man's Gone Now" ever recorded, not being afraid to drop to her chest voice for intense dramatic effect. Maazel brings out all the sparkle in Gershwin's long orchestral sequences.

I've had this on LP for years, and finally found a used library CD. It's the only Porgy I can really listen to - the others pale in comparison.

For Americans, the Gershwins' 1935 opera "Porgy And Bess" is our "Carmen" and "The Marriage Of Figaro"--our biggest contribution to the world of opera. It was where classical music met jazz and the musical format to produce a masterpiece; and it is amazing, if not necessarily surprising, that the racial element of the work made it such an iffy proposition for a lot of opera companies (the Met in New York didn't even stage the thing until 1985, and it was only after the Houston Opera staged it in 1976 that it even came to be seen as a legitimate opera). Now, of course, it is performed all over the world, including at prestigious mid-European places like the Deutsche Opera in Berlin, and the Vienna State Opera.

For the first forty years of its existence, however, most people had not heard the entire opera for real, because of the cuts that the Gershwins had made to make it more voluble in performances. Fortunately, this 1976 recording of the complete opera, which here is put on a 3-CD set of just slightly over three hours in length, vaulted "Porgy And Bess" to the ranks of the great operas of all time, with a cast to kill for, including Willard White as Porgy, and Leona Mitchell as Bess, and future classical music superstars like Barbara Hendricks and Florence Quivar in support. The recording won the Grammy in 1976 for Best Opera Recording, and rightfully so.

What makes it truly marvelous is that it is the Cleveland Orchestra that performs the music here. You'd never think that this is the same orchestra that, from 1946 to 1970, was schooled under George Szell to focus in on the core Austro-German repertoire of the late 18th and 19th centuries (particularly Mozart and Haydn). However, under Lorin Maazel, who was the orchestra's music director from 1972 to 1983, the Gershwins' score shines, as does the cast, and with able help from the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus under Robert Page's supervision. The whole enterprise is both vibrant and touching; and there's never a dull moment, even if it is quite lengthy.

Even with the many recordings of it, I would have to consider this recording of "Porgy And Bess" to be the one to own. The cast, orchestra, and chorus meld so well together that it is vigorously recommended.

Outstanding recording of the complete Porgy and Bess. It is, in my view, the best buy for the opera.

This CD was the first to present all 3 hours of music that Gershwin wrote for "Porgy and Bess", and it claims that this is how Gershwin intended it to be performed. However, this is not the truth.

Gershwin always worked on his music in rehearsals to make it better, and Porgy and Bess was not different. He made many cuts, changes and additions to his score before the final 1935 version his Broadway, whittling down the music to jsut 2 hours and 20 minutes. What resulted was a much tighter story, dramatically.

It is definitely interesting to hear all 3 hours (best not taken all at one time). However, Maazel is not likely to be remembered as a great Gershwin conductor.

The other main drawback is the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus--they are totally out of place on this recording, singing as if they were singing a Bach Cantata. They do not capture the jazz style, or the singing style that is required.