Product Details

• Actors: Willard White, Cynthia Haymon, Gregg Baker, Cynthia Clarey, Marietta Simpson
• Directors: Trevor Nunn
• Writers: Trevor Nunn, Dorothy Heyward, DuBose Heyward, Yves Baignères
• Producers: Dennis Marks, Greg Smith, Jac Venza
• Format: Classical, Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 2
• Studio: Capitol
• VHS Release Date: September 14, 1993
• Run Time: 184 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (129 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302902010
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #103,458 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This powerful production originated on the stage of the Glyndebourne Festival. It was restaged and filmed on location for the BBC telecast preserved in this video recording. Director Trevor Nunn takes full advantage of the realism, fluidity of movement, and precision of small details that are difficult to achieve when televising a staged performance but easy and natural in a movie treatment.

Nunn's vision, conveyed by an unusually talented cast, is constantly touching and rises to overwhelming intensity at climactic points. For example: the crap game and fight that end in Robbins's death, the hurricane scene, Crown's capture and abuse of Bess on Kittiwah Island, Porgy's fight with Crown, the comically sinister antics of Sportin' Life, the double-edged pathos and absurdity of the scene in which Bess gets "divorced," and the electrifying conclusion, when Porgy throws away his crutches and sets out, naively, to find Bess in New York.

Musically, Simon Rattle and all the performers find the exact style for Gershwin's marvelous score--not only such big numbers as "Summertime," "Bess, You Is My Woman Now," "I Loves You, Porgy," "I Got Plenty o' Nuttin'," "It Ain't Necessarily So," "I Hates Your Struttin' Style," and "O Lawd, I'm on My Way," but such smaller items as the exquisite cries of the street vendors of honey, strawberries, and crabs. There are no weaknesses in the cast. Willard White and Cynthia Haymon are ideal in the title roles, Gregg Baker is a terrifying, larger-than-life Crown, and Damon Evans is a properly slimy Sportin' Life. The white police officers are splendidly repulsive. --Joe McLellan

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

165 of 166 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Beautiful Movie of Gershwin's Opera, June 29, 2003

By 

J Scott Morrison (Middlebury VT, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: George Gershwin - Porgy & Bess / Trevor Nunn · Sir Simon Rattle · W. White · C. Haymon · Glyndebourne Opera (DVD)

You must disregard many of the earlier customer reviews of this DVD; apparently a lot of people thought they were going to be seeing a straight movie, or a Hollywoodization of the opera made in the 1950s. This, kind readers, is the REAL opera as its creators [George Gershwin and his brother, Ira] intended it and the Glyndebourne Opera production is beautifully opened up, as they say, for the movie camera by the eminent British director, Trevor Nunn. It's all under the direction of that nonpareil British conductor, Sir Simon Rattle, who has since moved on to the plum job of the conductorial world as music director of the Berlin Philharmonic.

The cast is superb. Willard White owns the role of Porgy and his acting is superb as the cripple whose heart is broken. Cynthia Haymon sounds wonderful and looks terrific as Bess. Gregg Baker not only has the huge, sonorous bass that Crown requires, but he looks the part better than anyone I've ever seen in this opera-- and I've seen at least five productions, going back to Leontyne Price and William Warfield at the old New York City Opera. Damon Evans is a suitably oily Sportin' Life. Marietta Simpson, the eminent Mahlerian contralto, sings an absolutely riveting (and hilarious) Maria. Serena, Jake's widow, is ably taken by Cynthia Carey. Some of the 'minor' roles are portrayed by an actor while the singing is done by a trained singer; there is absolutely no problem with the lip-synching--indeed I didn't know until I saw the credits. Clara, the character who sings 'Summertime,' is acted by a beautiful young woman named Paula Ingram, and sung by the delectable Harolyn Blackwell. The ill-fated Jake is acted by Gordon Hawkins, and sung by the talented Bruce Hubbard.

Visually the production is as detailed and realistic as any I've seen. The videography is fluid and unobtrusive. The denizens of Catfish Row are sung superbly and their movements intricately, and realistically, choreographed.

I don't imagine I'll be wanting any other DVDs of this, one of my favorites operas (and certainly my favorite American opera) for a long time to come.

Scott Morrison

156 of 167 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Did someone say "original" ?, June 26, 2001

By 

W. Graff (Paris France) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Gershwins' Porgy & Bess / Rattle, White, Haymon, Glyndebourne Opera [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I have read through the eighty-some posts here and was surprised to read over and over "I want to see the 'original' with Sidney Poitier..."

The "original" opera opened in 1935 and starred Todd Duncan and Anne Brown. Selection from this original production are available on Decca records (recently re-issued on CD). Also, on a CD entitled "Gershwin Plays Gershwin" there are excerpts from rehearsals of the original production!

In the 1950s, Porgy and Bess was mounted on Broadway as a musical as opposed to its original operatic form. All of the recitative was replaced with dialogue. So much of Gershwin's amazing score was cut. This is the form of Porgy that was used for the Preminger film. It is not the Porgy and Bess that Gershwin intended - but only a "Readers Digest" version.

At about the same time, Lyontine Price was touring in a new production of Porgy and Bess which brought the opera back to the public and which made her a star. There is an "excepts" version of this production which is nothing less than electrifying. It is a crime that Price never recorded a complete Porgy and Bess. She was a GREAT Bess.

The next great production would come in the 70s with the Houston Opera's production, which is still considered definitive.

I have seen the Glyndebourne Opera version when it was broadcast on TV, and I thought it was beautiful. The settings are very natural and the acting is quite good. One very unfortunate cut in this production (or at least from the DVD) is Porgy's "Buzzard Song", which is one of my favorite arias from the opera.

I now finally have the DVD version, and the sound is very clear and well balanced. Using Dolby Pro-logic, there is a good separation between voice and orchestra.

Try to get the Hollywood version out of your head and enjoy Porgy and Bess the way the Gershwins and DuBose Heyward intended it. It is THE great American opera and deserves nothing less.

49 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful "live" production but don't look for 1959 film, August 31, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Gershwins' Porgy & Bess / Rattle, White, Haymon, Glyndebourne Opera [VHS] (VHS Tape)

For those who are looking for the 1959 Otto Preminger film of "Porgy and Bess" with Sidney Poitier and Dorothy Dandridge: you may as well stop looking. The Gershwin family a long, long time ago had all the prints as well as the original film negative totally destroyed. The Gershwins did not like the 1959 film, thought it did a disservice to George Gershwin, bought the rights to it and destroyed the entire production. I was always under the impression that only barbarians destroyed works of art, but these relations of the great composer gave me a whole new view of the meaning of the word "barbarian." So be happy with the current VHS tape. I saw this production on stage and it is just as good on tape. Hopefully, the DVD will be out soon. The following is for the folks who put out hundreds of trashy horror movies on DVD but who don't give a tinker's damn about such things as opera classics: put this production on DVD! The 1959 movie is, literally, history. This is all we have, and it is wonderful!